SEASON THREE
by ariel1200s
Summary: My version of how Dark Angel could have been after the season 2 finale.
1. S03E01 Settlling In

**OKAY, so some major revision is taking place. I read through and tried to keep everything pretty much the same for all of those who have already read the story, but I started this over three years ago…and most of you know that your writing style changes a lot in that amount of time. I was literally wincing as I read through it. Bleh. It took all of my self-restraint not to just delete the whole thing. It still bothers me, but any more revisions and it would have been a totally different story.**

**This is a Max/Alec story, so there might be some Logan bashing. I'll try to keep it minimized to the best of my ability. No matter how much easier it would be to just kill him off…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel. This is what you would be seeing on TV if I did. Enjoy.**

During Freak Nation... THEY ARE ON THEIR WAY TO TC FROM THE JAMPONY SEIGE

The only escape route for the cops was to their rear. And by the time all the transgenics made their appearance known, over one hundred of them had the officers in the sights of their guns.

Max watched Clemente's face as the realization hit, that his forces were hopelessly outgunned.

"You can try to arrest us all," Max suggested, her arms widening to include all the transgenics, "but you guys might want to call it a night...and go have a beer."

Clemente needed only a second to make up his mind, "Back it up! Outside the fence, people. Let's go, move it back!"

The officers looked from the transgenics to their leader, then started looking at one another.

"NOW!" Clemente yelled not even moving his eyes from Max.

Cops began holstering their weapons, jumping into cars, and soon police cruisers were moving in every direction as they tried to find the fastest way out of TC. As the long line of cars broke and headed for the gate, Clemente watched them for a moment, then cautiously holstered his pistol and turned toward Max. Walking slowly, he crossed the short distance to her.

Barely a foot from her, he said, "You kept today from turning into a bloodbath...and I respect that..."

She gave him a slight nod. "You held up your end too."

The detective's face remained a solemn mask. "...but you haven't won anything. This is going to get ugly...and it's way over my head now. These people's lives depend on the decisions you make next."

Their eyes locked.

He went on: "And I pray you make the right ones..."

She stared at him, waiting.

"...Max."

She was unprepared for the swell of pride she got when he said her name. Why couldn't more of the "ordinaries" be like this one? Yes, they were on different teams, but in the way he had said her name she could tell they were not enemies.

Turning on his heel, Clemente got into his car, dropped it into reverse, and backed out of the building toward the gate of TC.

The lights weren't even out of sight before Mole-ever the hotheaded activist-went to work. "Escape and evade. We divide into teams, pick a compass point, and go to ground."

Max surprised even herself when the words jumped out of her mouth: "No!...We stay here."

Mole spun to face her, his harsh-sounding voice even harsher than usual. "In a couple of hours that perimeter'll be totally locked down...tanks, National Guard, and every cop within a hundred miles."

Stepping forward, Dix-the transgenic with a face like a pile of lumpy mashed potatoes and a half-assed goggle-cummonocle strapped to his one good eye-said, "We'll be digging our own grave."

"Mole's right," said Luke, a transgenic with a cue ball for a head, red bags under his black eyes, and huge flaps over his tiny ears. "We move now, they won't be able to catch us all."

"Where are you going to go?" Max asked, then turning her attention to the misfit crowd, she added, "Look-I can't stop anyone from leaving. But I'm through with running and hiding and being afraid." Making her point with a forceful pirouette, she said, "I'm not gonna live like that anymore. Aren't you tired of living in darkness?"

She saw a few nods and heard a few scattered mumbles of agreement.

"Don't you want to feel the sun on your face? Don't you want to have a place of your own? A place where you can walk down the street without being afraid?"

The noises of agreement grew louder.

"They made us and they trained us to be soldiers...to defend this country. It's time they face us and take responsibility for us instead of trying to sweep us away like garbage. We were made in America. And we aren't going anywhere."

Original Cindy, nodding, said, "Speak your word."

Max looked at her for a split second, loving her sister, who had been with her since the very beginning; then she went on: "They call us freaks? Well, okay. Today...I'm proud to be a freak. And today, we're gonna make our stand, right here."

Looking around her, she studied the faces, so many faces, of those she knew and those she didn't know, but in her heart they were all her family. "Who's with me?" Calmly, Max raised a fist in the air.

Joshua's fist shot up instantly and Original Cindy's and Alec's and Logan's and one by one the others, even Dix and Luke. This was a solidarity none of them had ever known, not even back at Manticore. They were together, proud and defiant. Finally, only Mole stood alone, arms at his sides.

Max studied the lizard-faced commando. As she watched him gazing from face to face, she could see he felt it too-brotherhood was in the air. Sisterhood too.

Slowly, his fist rose in the air and something like a grin appeared on that lizard face as he said, "Aw, what the hell..."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Turning to Mole she said, "Pick out some volunteers for sentry duty to go with the ones you had before. We're gonna need tighter security." He nodded in response. Max continued, "Dix. Luke. I want you to find some way to get water and food."

"Sure thing, Max." She heard. "Rest of you...get some sleep, things aren't gonna get messy for a while...Alec." When he looked at her, she motioned for him to follow as she walked out of the room.

She led him to a quiet room that resembled the one where they found CJ. She shook her head..."Déjà vu," she mumbled under her breath. Alec gave her a questioning look, but she pretended not to notice.

Patting the table as she walked past it, she said, "Hop on."

She heard Alec sit on the table as she continued walking to get the First Aid kit. When she turned back to him with it in her hands, she saw him visibly pale with a terrified look on his face.

Probably thinking about Bullet, she thought, also remembering the day she cauterized his leg wound. She momentarily wondered about what might have happened to the obedient little troopers. It was a dangerous trait to have when you were mixed in with an organization like Manticore. As cold-hearted as it may sound, she really hoped that their nearly getting shot by their supposed commanding officers had opened their eyes a little to the real world…whatever that was.

"Earth to Max," she heard. She looked up to see Alec watching her intently. His brow was a little sweaty and his complexion was sallow. The dark bruises under his eyes made her realize how long they had been running on adrenaline and fear alone.

"I am flattered that you would give me Earth, but I'll settle for TC." she responded cheekily with a very "alec-like" smirk. It was nice to know he wasn't in so much pain that he could still joke with her. Good sign, definitely a good sign.

Then she remembered she was holding a First Aid kit, and not just for the fun of it. She walked the rest of the way to him and set it down on the table.

She pulled his shirt up, only hesitating a moment when she heard him hiss in pain. There was nothing to do for it; it had to be done.

"Ya, well, nothing's too good for my Maxie," he said tightly through gritted teeth.

Without missing a beat, she chided, "Don't call me that." It was an automatic response.

Max knew he was just trying to forget his pain, but she had also told him that she hated it. Of course, he didn't know that only her unit had those privileges. But every time Alec said it, it caused unbearable pain with the memories it wrenched up: "This is for you Maxie, so you'll finally understand why I'm doing this."..."Fight them Maxie, don't let them win. X5-599. I've got a heart for you."..."Stay out of his way Maxie, or he'll come for you to."

"...Max?..." She shook her head. Damn. That was the second time she'd zoned-out in the last five minutes.

"Yeah, Alec?" Max asked impatiently. It was a good scare tactic that worked wonders on most people. Alec was definitely an exception, but he sometimes played the rules.

He shook his head, "Never mind."

Max didn't mind the silence that fell upon them; it was comforting considering all they had been through...

"So," Alec started. Max sighed, So much for that, she thought.

"What?" she demanded without looking up from what she was doing.

"Well, I was just wonderin...how'd you know White's men were coming...none of the rest of us heard anything, and Joshua's really got a nice set of ears. What with his being a dog 'n all. But there was Dalton and Mole too… Hell, I didn't even see anything, and I was on the look-out. It only took them seconds to climb the outer wall. It was like you could read their minds…or see the future…or…"

Max wanted to laugh. She knew Alec too well. He always babbles on when he's nervous. He did have a good point though. Knowing about White's men coming hadn't freaked her out at the time; she was worried about keeping everyone safe. Then later she hadn't had time to think about it. Thinking about it now made her a little uneasy. Was this another one of Sandeman's surprises? It was her body, dammit! She was a real person. He had no right to go play Scrabble with her DNA.

Alec glanced at her while he was talking and knew she wasn't paying attention, so he casually added, "So I'm real hot and you're obsessed with my ass, right?..."

Max was so deep in her thoughts, she hadn't realized Alec had stopped talking and was now looking at her expecting an answer. Oh...

Because Max didn't want to get caught spacing out again-she replied, "Ya I know. Weird huh...I just don't know why."

There, Max thought, satisfied with herself. That sounded like a pretty good answer.

Alec burst out laughing, and so did some other people...

Confused, Alec turned to see Mole, Sketchy, and OC standing in the doorway. He shrugged, looked at Max's face, and started laughing again.

Max stood there the whole time confused, wondering if it was something she said.

OC looked at her confused face and said, "Boo, you gotta quit spacin' it cuz one a these days you gonna regret it."

So much for not getting caught, Max thought, and then wondered what was so funny.

"Hey Alec, what did you ask anyway?" she asked.

He shrugged her off. "Oh nothin...just something I've always suspected." He said, while sharing a knowing smile with the rest of the people in the room.

It made Max mad when they exploded into laughter again. She smiled and not-so-gently stuck an alcohol-soaked cotton ball on Alec's wound.

Ahh...sweet revenge.

"Shit! What the hell was that for!" he yelped.

Max, in the sweetest of voices, replied, "Why, Alec, that was a disinfectant…for disinfecting wounds." She smiled a smile that reached all the way to her eyes.

OC laughed, ignoring Alec's glare. It was good to see her Boo acting the way she used to, before she was recaptured by Manticore.

Alec got tired of everyone enjoying his pain, so he asked, "Any specific reason you guys came down here, or did ya just miss me too much?"

Mole made something like a snort, and then said, "You wish Princess."

Sketchy jumped in before Alec could reply to his hated nickname. "Actually, Joshua is painting a flag for TC."

Max and Alec got quiet, admiring the fact that even though it was something so small, Joshua always seemed to know what to do to bring everyone together and put them in a better mood.

"We'll be up as soon as we're finished, k?" Max said.

"Aiight, jus fix 'em up good Boo." OC said walking out the door with the others.

They stayed there until they couldn't hear them anymore. Alec, who had never been a very patient person, even if he didn't want to get sewn up, was the first to break the silence. Surprise, surprise.

"This is gonna hurt, isn't it?" Alec asked even though he didn't want an answer.

"Like a bitch," was all she said, before blurring to sew him up.

It had taken her less than a second, and by the time she finished, tied the knot, and cut the string, he was just starting to feel the pain. He yelled.

Max stood there, watching him scream. It took him a couple seconds for him to realize she was already done, and when he stopped screaming and jerked his face to her, she arched an eyebrow and smirked.

"You can't do that!"

"Do what?" she asked innocently.

He waved his hands in the air, as if the idea was too insane to react calmly. Maybe it was. "Blur to sew somebody shut."

"Looks like I just did," Max said distractedly while admiring her handiwork and nodding in satisfaction, "It's a pretty neat trick."

"But you coulda KILLED me!" he shouted.

Max barely refrained from rolling her eyes. She threw him his shirt. "Come on, we've got a flag to go see."

"Don't think this conversation is over," he warned pulling his shirt on, slowly over the wound.

"Whatever you say..." Max got a mischievous grin on when she remembered Mole's nickname for him… She waited till he had his shirt halfway on.

"..Princess," She added while blurring out of the room.

She was in the middle of the hall when she heard him running after her, yelling like a banshee. She did something she hadn't done since her return to Manticore-she laughed.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Max stood with most of the other transgenics on top a building in TC. They were all gathered around to watch Joshua's flag while Joshua was around to watch their reactions. This new unity had done strange things to them. It had created a good-Samaritan kind of brotherhood. It was unspoken, but everyone was prepared to look pleased because it was obvious Joshua was very proud of his work. But to say everyone was truly amazed would be an understatement.

The sun seemed to make the flag glow. Everyone was speechless, heck-even Mole got out a cigar and puffed it with a swelling pride.

They all seemed to be in a better mood. This shithole, known as TC, had become very special to the transgenics. It was something that they, for the first time in their lives, could call their own. For better or worse, they had something worth living-or dying for.

Joshua had symbolized the transgenic nation perfectly. The transgenics were a wide stretching dove in flight, leaving the black third (which stood for Manticore and secrets), flying in the middle third (which was red to show the blood that was being spilled), and heading towards the top third where they wanted to go…"Into the light," Max said to herself, "It's perfect."

She heard Logan roll up beside her.

"Tell Alec your welcome for me. I mean, I know he stole you from me, so I definitely didn't have to save his life, but I did anyway. The least he could do is apologize," he said calmly.

Max felt herself freeze. It had been a long day. Over twenty-hours of running on adrenaline, so people were bound to be letting their less composed sides show. Had it really been yesterday that she had let him run his rubbery latex gloves along her back? The runes seemed like such a lifetime ago. She knew that and understood completely. Transgenics were made for these situations, and she was positive even OC and Sketchy were feeling the pressure right about now. Even still, anger was bubbling up inside her, so she counted backwards from fifty clenching and unclenching her fists…and then did it again.

When she finally felt like she had control over her anger, she turned to Logan, "You don't do the right thing, just to do it anymore?" she asked blandly. He looked a little chagrined. She didn't care though. She had been under too much pressure lately. More so than most…and especially more so than Logan. He wasn't the supposed chosen one, the only savior of the world. "Let me break this down for you: I am not a prize, so quit talking like I'm some blonde bimbo who didn't have any say in the matter. Alec couldn't 'steal' me from you because we weren't like that, remember? And, you're right. You didn't have to jump in front of him to save his life, because Alec would've just stood by and laughed if you had been killed. You know what? I gotta blaze." To Joshua she said, "Kickass flag, big fella."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA A

Punch. Kick. Max smiled to herself, sure this wasn't the Space Needle, but it sure helped her to blow off some steam.

She punched the bag again. Alec smirked at her venting methods and looked around. It appeared to be an old gymnasium converted halfway into a work-out room. It had matted floors, punching bags, and showers off to the side in rooms divided by gender.

Alec looked back at Max. He had heard the quiet fight between her and Logan and followed her here; he'd never felt so proud in his life than he did at the fact that Max had stood up for him. But unfortunately, he also saw Max trying to control her anger. Nothing weird about that at all, but when it's directed to Logan…well, little red warning lights go up.

Suddenly, he saw Max's face scrunch up as she got even more mad, if that was possible.

She started yelling, "Doesn't he know," punch, "I'm," punch, "the only one," punch, "allowed to call," punch, "Alec," punch, "a screw-up?" punch, punch, PUNCH. The bag broke from its hook and flew to the wall.

Max and Alec both smiled in satisfaction.

Then, Alec decided that that little comment was just too good to let by, "So, you do appreciate me."

Max just stared at the bag on the ground-not bothering to turn around. "Wouldn't you like to know."

She smirked, knowing that it'd only make him even more curious. She decided look to back at him to make sure it had. Alec's face was all scrunched up and his eyebrows were creased together in confusion. Max couldn't help it; she laughed, despite her sour mood.

"So, what brings you here?" Max asked as she moved over to pick up the fallen punching bag.

"Well, you got me pretty scared to tell you the truth," Alec admitted.

She sent him a half-glare, half-questioning look, so he hurried on before she forgot the bag on the floor and went back to using him as her human punching bag.

"You see, you've laughed like twice now-and in the same day I might add. And then…I see you stomp off from a fight with Roller boy-Eyes Only." He finished giving her a "what's going on" look.

"I'm sorry, would you prefer I go back to being blindly in love with Eyes Only, and beat you instead of a punching bag?" she said sweetly.

"Oh no, no, no," he said holding his hands up. "I just wanted-…" Alec stopped and squinted his eyes at her. "Why are you avoiding the question by scaring me?"

"Maybe I don't wanna answer it, Al-ec."

"Ok, suit yourself," he said, then mumbled under his breath, "And she tells me I have a problem with keeping things in."

"What was that?"

"Nothing," he said quickly, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Hey. . ." Max said, suddenly looking unsure of herself. This of course sparked Alec's complete attention. He impatiently waited for her to continue, fighting with all his restraint to keep from prodding her. She took a ridiculously long time to continue, in which Alec wondered if she had been doing it on purpose, before she finally said, "You know, my fighting skills are beyond rusty, could you train me?"

"What? Where did this come from?"

"Back at Manticore, when I was recaptured, they tried to get me caught up, but there's a lot you miss in ten years. I mean, I know you hold back whenever we fight. And with this siege going on…I'll need to know how to take care of Familiars…" she trailed off seeing his look.

He couldn't believe it…well of course he held back whenever they fought; aside from the ten years of intense training he had on her, and he'd rather die than tell her this, but – she's a girl. He just didn't think she noticed. She never showed that she noticed. And he never showed that he noticed her not noticing his holding back…confusing. He assumed she thought that she was the queen of the world. Maybe he was the one with a big head……

"Never mind, it was a stupid idea." she said when the silence dragged out. She turned back to the punching bag and hunched over to pick it up off the floor.

Alec snapped out of his thoughts and blurred over to her. He block-punched her in the shoulder and sent her flying before she could even turn around.

She hit the wall, then the mat. For a second she just laid there on her back.

"Tsk tsk tsk, Max. You've been away from Mommy Manticore too long. You left yourself completely vulnerable. What would Renfro say?"

Understanding lit Max's eyes as she realized that this was Alec's way of saying he had agreed to train her. She smiled and got up.

"Actually, I hope it'd piss her off." Max said truthfully and grinned before blurring towards him. Something nagged at her, and when she realized what it was, the grin on her face was replaced with a look of panic. She just barely stopped her punch before it hit his bullet wound.

"Shit. Maybe you better wait till your shoulder heals…" Max said.

Alec was looking down at his shoulder, nodding his head in agreement, so he missed the note of guilt in her voice. When he looked up, however, it was hard to miss it. Her eyes could be so expressive when she let them.

"Oh…hey, it's ok…I forgot too," he tried, but he knew he didn't convince her. She shook him off.

"Well, gotta blaze," she said heading to the door with a sort of defeated posture. Alec immediately felt responsible. She opened the door halfway and yelled back," And by the way, you left your whole side completely vulnerable."

He definitely liked this Max better. Once again she paused to turn around. "Oh, and…happy birthday."

Alec winced. "Oh, you heard about that?"

Max grinned. "Cindy might have mentioned Normal's attempt at making you a cake that wouldn't harm your golden physique."

Cheeky little thing. She flashed him one last smile and ducked out for good.

Alec watched the door shut behind her and continued staring at it long after she had gone.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AA

Max made her way down the street. A little boy was letting an even younger girl rest her head on his shoulder, his arm wrapped securely around her shoulders while she slept. One of the desert X2 series, whom had been here longer, was letting a group of newbie X6's crash in his bed, trying to communicate to the best of its ability with a series of clicks. The children seemed frightened of it at first, but then one of the teenage girls took charge, stepping forward and taking his hand. Around the corner an intermixed group of X5's and Nomlies were gathered round a fire someone had started in a trashcan. The X5's didn't seem to notice the abnormalities of their counter-company's physical appearance.

All around transgenics were either asleep or making themselves comfortable in their new home. Home…

The thought alone gave Max all the warmth she needed to ignore the bite in the early Seattle wind.

What she would've given if she could've stayed in that moment, because the happiness she felt was sucked out of her, as if by vacuum, the minute she saw the perimeter fence.

It was teeming with police and even a few tanks. The National Guard had been called in already. It was flattering, really, to know they warranted high enough on the security threats to reach the top dogs. Beyond it, if that wasn't bad enough, were hundreds of protestors with signs stating: KILL THE FREAKS, THEY'RE NOT HUMAN, THEY DON'T NEED RIGHTS, and GO BACK TO WHERE YOUR FROM.

Max sighed to herself. You could feel the energy in the air. It was a bitter mixture of anticipation, suspense, hatred…and all in that awful cocktail, there was still a little hope. It was a confusing mix, and all of it was giving her the jitters, making her head pound.

The gym may be good for anger, but we have a cavalry of transgenic haters out there. Some of which may try to negotiate…she needed a plan. She had taken on the heavy burden of leadership, and all these people's lives were on her hands the minute she gave her speech.

Where to think?

Ten minutes later Max found herself headed back towards the gym, because ironically, it was the tallest building in TC. And tall places helped clear her head.

Max could've scaled the wall from the ground outside, if she was feeling particularly zealous, but she also wanted to see if Alec had left. She just didn't want him knowing where her thinking place was so he could try and annoy me all the time, Max told herself.

Once she had searched and found the main part to be empty, she headed up.

There was no official door that led to the roof. The ladder that used to lead to the top had long ago broken off. In the end, and faced with no other choice, Max had to scale the wall about five feet to get to the top.

She was in a fit about how her luck seemed to be going, until she got up there and sat down. It was only six stories up, five stories were the gym and the last top floor was an apartment. Not very high in even building standards, and practically a Tonka toy when held in thought with the Space Needle, but it was enough to disappear from everyone.

She looked around the late, or early, sky and breathed in the cool air.

She wondered how everything could look so peaceful, yet she could feel so nervous. She didn't really want to lead TC, but they had believed in her dream, and that gave her an immeasurable amount of pleasure. She would probably even die if it meant they could live in peace.

Then slowly realization dawned on her- she had taken responsibility of all the transgenics again. When she freed them from Manticore it was only her duty to keep them out of trouble, but she had just put them into another siege. One that probably wasn't going to end anytime soon or in a very favorable way for them.

If she was right, and the police called to negotiate, then they need some kind of bargaining chip, or else her people were going to be on the very short end of the stick.

Thinking about what they would possibly do to get that little bargaining chip only brought back her headache.

She shook her head and tried to clear her mind like she had intended. It was impossible feat, but it never stopped her from trying.

She looked out over the city and could just barely make out the Needle from here. It stood tall like a dismal beacon, a dull North Star in this Post-Pulse world, there to give her some sort of guidance.

_I never really knew of the responsibility it took to be a leader. Zack always made it look so easy. I'd sure as hell like to ask him how he dealt with the pressure. He was a kid at the time and in the first day I had already lead my people into a world of hostility, through a hostage situation, and placed them in the middle of a siege. Not a promising start. Maybe it's genetic, _she smirked, _Zack's ability to see all the consequences of each decision he made. It didn't matter. He had given so much to them. Much more than anyone in their unit could understand. He didn't want to have his memories taken, but he deserved the break. And wherever he was…well, I hope it's sunny._

"I'm sorry," she whispered to the wind. "For everything."

Little did she know that as she said that, somewhere on a farm, a man had awakened from a deep sleep to be unwillingly bombarded with his missing memories.


	2. S03E02 Toxicity of the City

**Alrighty ladies and gentlemen. This is the second episode of season three. Revised and improved…hopefully. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel. Blah, blah, woof, woof**

"You know, you're an Ordinary; what are you doin' in here?" Max heard Mole's voice demand from inside the room she was headed to. In the two seconds it took her to reach the doorway, she had mentally prepared herself for another round with the terminal hothead of Terminal City, idly wondering who the victim of Mole's wrath was this time.

Max turned in the direction she heard his voice come from and almost laughed when she saw OC standing there, proud and defiant, in front of Mole with a cowering Sketchy behind her back. Instead of rushing over to defend her less physically enhanced friend, Max let a grin cross her face as she leaned her shoulder back against the wall.

Someone leaned against the wall next to her. "Twenty bucks on Cindy," Alec's voice said in an almost bored fashion.

Max grinned. "No deal. I like my Andy Jacksons just fine in my pocket."

"Coz OC's aiight. I don want none of this shit, jus cuz I'm an "Ordinary". You feelin' me? I been backin' ma homegirl longer than you been wankin' ta lady lizards. OC ain't gonna bail on her Boo jus coz she landed in a jam. OC won't take no shit jus cuz you sweatin' me. I'll put the smack down on yo ugly ass, transgenic or not." OC declared finishing by folding her arms across her chest and raising an eyebrow. Alec let out a snicker.

Sketch looked horrified by OC's outburst. Mole stood there a while, silent, then he suddenly threw his head back and burst into laughter, "You know what, you're alright for an Ordinary."

"Yeah, and you not half bad yourself for a washed up wrinkly thing," she retorted. Sketchy looked about ready to pee himself. Luckily, OC looked over and saw Max before the fight could escalate. She walked over with Sketchy right on her heels. They had been here for two days and Sketchy had been right with her the whole time. She hadn't been the only one to notice.

"If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say Sketchy isn't too terribly comfortable being of the minority in a place chocked full of transgenics," Alec said dryly.

That made Max smile.

"Hey boo. I gotta tell you…some of your family are aiight," she paused significantly, looked back over at Mole, and continued in a much louder voice. "And others OC could put the smack-down on for trippin so hard on me n ma wigga friend."

The "wigga friend" really looked like he was re-evaluating his previous judgement on safety in numbers. "OC," Sketchy said in a hurried voice when Mole looked over, "I do not want to die before I can get my story out. Will you _please _give it a rest?"

"Don't sweat it Sketch, we got your back," Max said while lightly punching Sketchy in the arm. He flinched and jumped about a foot in the air.

"Hey Sketch, you alright?" Alec questioned. "You know, I told you stay away from the purple pills. They were strong stuff and last time…"

"Could you please be serious, man?" Sketchy spoke over him. It completely silenced the circle of friends.

Alec shrugged. "Yeah, sure. Sorry, I know I'm a pain in the ass. I'm told it on a daily basis. I just thought what with being in a siege and all, people would appreciate the humor."

"Well, I don't appreciate it."

Alec's jaw clenched tight, his eyes deadening. "Whatever." He turned around and walked off. Sketchy didn't even look like he cared.

Max had never seen a jumpy Sketchy…unless you count the time they delivered to that gang, or the time he was cheating on Natalie. Okay, so she had seen him jumpy quite a few times…but generally it was always backed by a good excuse. She had definitely never seen a mad Sketchy. Or such a rude Sketchy.

She wondered what was bothering him this time…

"That was uncalled for wigga," OC scolded.

Sketchy turned to her. "You know what. I'm tired of everyone deciding for me what is called or uncalled for. I'm not stupid. I can make decisions on my own too, you know."

Max's eyes got round.

"Don't worry, my boy's alright…I think he jus needs some good ol fresh, polluted air." OC grabbed Sketchy by the ear and led him off, so they could talk in private.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAA

Alec stormed out of HQ, walking down the lengthy hallway of doors, brooding. He was breathing fast, but not from any physical exertion.

Finally, his thoughts just got too much for him. He fisted his hand and threw his torso, driving his arm up to the wrist through the wall. He slowly pulled his hand out and looked down at it. There was blood that trickled out from his four knuckles, running a slow red snake through the dust covered skin.

A door opened to his immediate right, and a head popped out.

"You've got to be kidding me," Alec whispered when he recognized who it was. The world was against him, both figuratively and literally.

"Uh…Alec," Logan questioned. "Is there a particularly unique reason you're punching holes through my wall, or is it just the normal every day routine?"

Alec really wanted to get upset with him, especially after the stunt he pulled the other day on the roof with Max. He didn't hear the whole conversation, but he did know that majority had been about his self. But Alec was all too aware of how this whole siege thing was affecting everyone. Hadn't he just stomped out of HQ like a spoiled little kid, because Sketchy indirectly told him to shut the hell up. And really, if Alec were to think about it, he should have been aware that something was wrong with Sketchy because, seriously, as long as the dude had a beer and a story to write, the world was, "All good, all the time." This had been told to Alec on a regular basis when Sketchy was in a less than sober state. He would mumble something about "herbal." Alec would jokingly tell him he needed to take it easy on the ganja, and Sketchy would laugh it off, moving on to whatever tickled his drunken interest.

Alec would have felt guilty for storming off without figuring out was wrong with his friend, and yes, Sketchy was indeed a friend, if it hadn't been for the fact that his words had really ticked a sore spot that Alec didn't even know existed. If he had stayed, more than likely, he would have said something he would definitely have reason to feel guilty for.

"Listen Alec," Logan started, bringing Alec out of his thoughts. For the first time he noticed that there was something on the computer whiz's mind. "I know I told you before to just take care of Max, but I want to say it again…and mean it this time."

Ah, so he was still the screw-up, taking the fall to protect the guy. It didn't matter too much, after all, hadn't Alec agreed to it after he had his little talk with Logan? The man was one key short of a piano.

Alec was also aware that this was his way of making up for his behavior yesterday. The man all but gave his blessing for the girl he had been celibate over for two years. It was probably more than Alec would have done given the positions being switched. Logan didn't even know that he had heard part of their fight.

The guy was too righteous for Alec's health.

"Uh, yeah. Whatever," he said with a shrug, already looking away, but Logan wouldn't let him.

"No, don't do that," Alec raised a brow, but Logan was already continuing before Alec could ask. "That Manticore thing I'm beginning to suspect was part of the curriculum. This is serious, don't close yourself off." Logan's stare was intense.

Alec met his intensity with spare. He didn't make a habit of showing this part of him. It intimidated people too much to think that he could be good looking and highly intelligent. He searched Logan's eyes. What he found there surprised him. He was sincere. Suddenly, this felt like more than having Max's back.

"Max sometimes takes on too much to handle by herself. Not always, she's got a brain in her with a genius IQ, but it still happens. And she sometimes tries to close herself off, but you have to make sure she doesn't do that. I know you may not think this, but it's better to talk about it. And…just, don't take her for granted, life's too short. She's a great woman."

The last was said with regret. And pain so deep that Alec could feel it. Logan cleared his throat and met Alec's eyes. "Will you take care of her?"

Alec hadn't actually realized how serious their relationship had been. How could anyone be serious with an ordinary? He suddenly felt juvenile for always poking fun at Max. He held Logan's gaze.

"Always," he said, without a trace of his trademark sarcasm.

OC dragged Sketchy the room where Max had patched up Alec. OC shut the doors and turned to Sketchy who now sat on the table swinging his legs.

"Alright fool, what's the problem?" OC demanded.

She had expected to have to wait a while for him to gather an answer, but was surprised when he blurted out,

"How long have you known?"

OC sighed. She knew he would ask eventually; she just still couldn't think of a better way to go about this.

"Coupla years," she stated, deciding she wanted to be honest with him. She watched as his face fall to an expression of hurt and betrayal, and it hurt her more than she would ever admit. She didn't like any of her friends hurting, and somewhere along the road, between all of his hair-brained ideals and idiotic expressions, yet honest intentions, he had wormed his way into her closest circle of friends.

"She didn't trust me," he stated slowly, looking down.

"Sketch…it's not how you think-" OC started. That made him mad, which, in return, scared the hell out of OC. She'd never seen him mad. Scared, happy, drunk, sad-heck, she'd even seen him serious for a couple of seconds, but never mad.

"OK! Tell me why Max can tell you about her being a transgenic and not me," he ordered, watching her closely.

"She didn't tell me…at least not by her choosing to." He shut his mouth and waited for her to continue. OC sighed. Well, they were here. They had reached the point of no return, but OC couldn't find it in herself to care. Sketchy had earned the right to know.

"Some really bad people found out what Max was. They wanted her to be mommy to a bunch of…monsters," OC shivered at remembering the Reds. She didn't see Sketchy's expression change because she was lost in the memory.

OC was actually scared…she's not scared of anything. She may not be scared now, but he knew that at the time, whatever she had gone through, it had really shaken her up. Sketchy didn't know what to do, so he acted by instincts. He reached out and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She seemed to barely notice.

"Max managed to escape from them, jus barely. But they were persistent bitches…when they found out Max was my boo, they used me to get her to walk into a trap." OC's eyes got even more distant remembering the feel of the gun held point blank against her chest.

"They made OC call her, but I warned her. When I saw ma home-girl walk in and start kickin some serious ass, I was extremely shocked…and that's putting it mildly. Afterwards, we were at Logan's. She was scared I wouldn't like her, but she thought I deserved the right to know. She told me."

Sketchy realized that maybe it wasn't as easy as he thought being a transgenic. He also felt sorry for thinking that Max didn't care or trust him.

"I didn't know what to think except that, she's a transgenic. Then I looked up and saw her standing there-holding her breath waiting for an answer all teary-eyed and what not. Max almost died that night, in fact, she had expected to, but she came anyway without shilly-shallying around. Original Cindy realized she was wrong; Max isn't just a transgenic…she's my friend." OC finished her story with watery eyes. "And that goes for Alec and Cece and Biggs and all the other ragtag X's out there who are doing what they think is right by them. They have to make decision in their interest because they think they the only ones who care about themselves. And they have to deal with the consequences every step they take. When Max, or Alec, chose not to tell you, they thought they were makin' the best choice. Can you blame 'em for not jumping at telling a reporter who works for _New World Weekly_?"

Sketchy cracked a small smile at that. "I guess I wouldn't have been the best person to confide in if you're wanting to hide."

Sketchy was quiet a moment. OC had thought she needed time to think about her decision, but in the end didn't need it. Sketchy had thought he needed time too, but hearing OC's story had brought up all the times Max had had his back too: cheating on Natalie, losing that Russian gang's money, going with him on JamPony runs because he was scared…

"You know what, Cindy? I think you're right."

OC sighed in relief and smiled.

"Just one question," he said as they walked to the door together, "You said those people who had you…"

"Reds," OC supplied.

"Right, the Reds. Well, how did you warn Max with them standing right there?"

OC laughed," I told her she had to meet Carlito."

"Carlito?"

"Ya, you know…my hot boyfriend," she said hitting him in the arm.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AA

Max was waiting at HQ for OC to return with Sketchy. She desperately wanted to know what was up, but knew she shouldn't interrupt their talk. She was also wondering where Alec was, but only minimally. He could usually handle his emotions. It was Sketchy who had her worried.

She decided to keep busy by walking over and talking to Dix. After about five minutes, she could tell he just wanted her to shut up and go away, but because she was Max, and a bored Max at that, she stayed and continued to drill him about food, water, electricity, etc. etc. They had been under siege technically for two days, but the less photogenic X-series had been camped out in this toxic town for much longer than that. They had a good start on supplies, but nowhere near enough food. Especially since they had more than doubled the population of TC in a matter of days and inadvertently put themselves under heavy surveillance. Sneaking out for supplies runs had become near impossible.

"Max," Dix finally snapped at her.

"Ya?"

"You're worse than Alec!"

Max was shocked for many reasons. One-she annoyed him a lot longer than she thought she could before he snapped. Two-he actually yelled. And three-he just said she was more annoying than Alec!

That last fact shut her up quick. A small, triumphant grin adorned Dix's mouth as he turned around and went back to his computer work.

But Max was an extremely impatient person, and after a while she got bored again, "So you got-"

She was cut off by an exasperated sigh. She glanced at him sharply. Dix's face lit up as he seemed to get an idea.

"Max, I heard Mole was looking for you…something to do with security problems." Dix smiled. Mole's head quickly jerked up from where he was cleaning his gun. It took him seconds to assess the situation and come to the conclusion that Dix deserved one of his intimidating glares.

Mole knew Dix had just pawned the annoying leader off on him. Max turned to Mole. Mole was going to kill that computer geek the next chance he got, his glare said.

"Well?" Max asked, tapping her foot while placing a hand on her hip.

But Mole was saved from answering when OC and Sketchy returned. Max mumbled a quick, "hold that thought," before rushing over to greet her friends.

Mole slumped back his chair and let out a big sigh.

"That was close," he heard Dix say to his computer with amusement in his voice.

"You're going to regret that, mule-boy," Mole threatened with squinted eyes.

"Regret what?" Dix asked as innocently as possible before turning back to his computer to hide his grin.

Max walked up to Sketchy and OC, trying to figure out what was bugging Sketchy, only to find out that whatever it was, it had already been resolved with their little talk.

OC knows how to fix everyone up. It's a big wonder why she doesn't run for president. Max smiled to herself at her thoughts picturing OC with a George Washington wig saying something like, "There never was no cherry tree ya damn fool."

"Hey Max…," Sketchy started nervously. For a second, Max was scared that maybe the "little problem" hadn't been fixed, until he continued, "uh…thanks."

That threw Max through a loop, "Huh?" she asked, looking at Sketchy as if he'd grown two heads.

"For always havin my back-…you're a good friend."

"You too," Max replied with a cheeky grin. "Besides, someone has to protect your skinny ass," she said getting their old friendship back to normal.

There was an awkward silence that followed.

Sketchy cleared his throat. "Uh…do you happen to contain the whereabouts of a certain X5 whom I owe an apology to for yelling at?"

Max looked around to the doorway, as if speaking of the devil, he shall appear. Alec missed his cue. "I don't know where he is actually…"

Just then, Sketchy broke out into a coughing fit. At first, nobody paid any attention to it. But after about a full minute of coughing Max glanced at a very red-faced Sketchy and started to get worried.

She was about to ask Sketchy if he was okay, but she was interrupted when OC started coughing too.

What the hell? Max thought for a second. Sketchy and OC were gasping now. They had sweat running down their faces due to the physical toll their bodies were taking from nonstop coughing.

Max had never felt so helpless in her life. What the hell was happening!

Max was so concentrated on them that she didn't see Alec walk in.

"Shit…we have to get them outta here…NOW!" Alec said after taking only a few seconds to grasp the situation.

Max spun around to face him. What was he talking about?

Suddenly, as if she was hit by a huge truck, she remembered. She wanted to hit herself. How could she forget something so important?

"Gotta plan?" Max asked Alec.

"…well the fences are probably too risky, but Luke and Dix might know about a few underground tunnels. I'll go talk to them."

"Thanks…" Max sighed and then something occurred to her, "Do you think Logan…" Max asked knowing she didn't have to finish her sentence because Alec would understand her question.

Alec looked concerned before he replied, "He's with Joshua. They were headed off down Maple street when I left them."

Max shook her head, nodded, and then ran out of the room.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAA

It actually wasn't raining today. There was a slight overcast, but Joshua wasn't too worried. A person could count on one hand the number of sunny days in Seattle and still have fingers to spare.

Joshua was walking down the street with Logan. He wasn't sure why Logan wanted to look for a house. It was obvious that he was intending to stay here in TC.

Joshua didn't think that the transgenics would like an Ordinary living in their territory, but Joshua knew that Logan only wanted to stay close to Max. He liked Max no matter what the situation was and would always stand by her side. It was a good trait that the canine could relate to with his innate sense of loyalty, but Logan would do much more good on the outside.

Joshua sighed, shaking his head sadly. Logan was acting foolish. He wondered what Little Fella was going to do.

"Joshua!" he heard Max's voice call in a searching tone from somewhere, but didn't see her.

"Little Fella!" Joshua exclaimed, excited as always to see her. There had been little time for socializing. Max had a lot on her shoulders, and Joshua understood that, which is why he had been waiting patiently for her to come to him. Joshua's smile slipped from his face when Logan suddenly started coughing behind him.

Joshua looked back at Logan with concern and wonder. He walked over and put two supporting hands on his shoulders. Logan's face was turning red and he couldn't seem to get enough air in to account for the oxygen starved muscles. He was fighting a downhill battle.

He heard footsteps running towards them. Joshua looked up to see Max blurring to their side.

"C'mon, Alec has a way to get them outta here-we think it's because of the nasty chemicals that were left here in TC," she instructed Joshua. She nodded at him when he silently asked with his eyes if he should carry Logan.

Joshua hefted him up on his shoulder and began to run back with Max to HQ.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAA

The sun wasn't up yet, but there was a sort of light purple color at the bottom of sky, indicating that the sun wasn't too far off.

It was about four in the morning, according to Max's inner transgenic clock.

Even as she was just trying to enjoy the feeling of being safe, she couldn't help but smirk at the irony of the situation.

Who knew her safe-haven would be in the middle of a biohazard wasteland, surrounded by police and god knows who else, in the middle of a seige. Both sides restless to anticipate the other's move, but neither anxious to make the first.

But no matter how ironic, she knew it was true. And she owed it to the fact of simply being surrounded by others of her kind. And even though they had that at Manticore, it still wouldn't be the same because they weren't there by choice. Like now. They were going to fight to the end, not be resigned to whatever Manticore decided they wanted to do to you.

She was atop her substitute Space Needle looking out at TC. This was her third night in Terminal City, yet this was the first time she had actually been able to sit down. She wasn't usually the sentimental type, but this was the first time since she was probably born that she had felt at home. Things had been hectic blur of running back and forth like a mindless puppet trying to deal with the complaints from both sides. The police outside weren't ready yet to make negotiations, they were still in the demanding and threatening stage. The transgenics in TC were worried about food and shelter and anything else they could think of. She hadn't had a break in two days. Without her shark DNA she wasn't sure what she would have done. She especially wasn't sure how Alec had managed it, because he had been working just as much as her. If he wasn't by her side, he had been off doing something else to take some of the workload off her shoulders.

Now everyone was waiting for Dix and Luke to come up with a timetable to go with the fortunate discovery they had made tonight.

Max sighed. At least something's going our way, she thought while contemplating all that had happened over the last few hours. It was definitely the first silver lining they had found amidst this whirlwind of storm clouds.

**A Few Hours Earlier, Around Midnight**

Typing furiously, Dix seemed to dig up some very old looking blueprints.

"If we're lucky they should totally be forgotten about," Luke said while looking at Max to make sure she knew that he wasn't totally positive they were.

"I deleted all their blueprints that are in their databases, but I'm sure they have a paper set somewhere…maybe you could steal them, so no one would be able to find out about them."

She nodded and looked at Alec. He looked immensely happy-due to the fact that these tunnels weren't sewers.

She would have laughed if the situation wasn't so serious.

The openings to the tunnels, thankfully, weren't near the fence. Max wasn't sure what they would have done if they had to walk right up in front of the National Guard and disappear down into the ground. Especially since, in all likely, this would be the route they had to take to smuggle in supplies. Since there were several entrances to the tunnels in various buildings, it would hopefully take a while for the police to catch on that they couldn't just wait them out. It would take them a while to realize that they were somehow getting food in their city. It gave Max some time to find the bargaining chip she would need when they decided to call to negotiate.

Max and Alec were supporting OC, Logan, and Sketchy as they ran down the dark passages. Luke and Dix had found that not just one tunnel, but a huge labyrinth of abandoned tunnels ran under TC. It was mind-boggling. When Max had taken a glimpse at the blueprints, she knew that even if she blurred, she could get lost down there for days. It made Max wonder what exactly the place had been up to. She suspected that laboratories and toxic chemicals were only the tip of the iceberg.

Max, the ever-prepared soldier, also noted with satisfaction, that if it all boiled down to desperate measures, and the siege ended up turning into a huge bloodbath of a war, that all the transgenics could escape through the tunnels.

The farther they got from TC, the less the three stopped coughing, which was a huge relief. Max had had the impression that they were going to have to carry them. Ten minutes later, they were talking as if nothing had happened.

Shortly after the three had completely recovered, they found the exit.

Alec cautiously opened the door and looked out, scoping the building.

Nothing spectacular, just an abandoned building. It looked like an indoor parking lot with three big garage doors. It only had two windows and a regular door that led outside. Off to the right there appeared to be some rooms.

Alec gave the nod, signaling that it was clear, and that they could come out. They all filed out of the passageway while Max snooped around outside.

Alec watched as she came back in grinning, which confused the hell out of him.

"Max, you're scaring me," he said nodding his head slightly towards her smile.

She hit him on the back of his head, but her smile never faltered; she only exclaimed, "Can you believe our luck?" while moving her arms to indicate the building.

He looked around and was confused-he didn't think it was that great of a thing. He glanced up and noticed OC and Logan were confused as well. He was turning back to Max to ask if she had hit her head and gone crazy, when from somewhere behind him he heard Sketchy exclaim, "You're right Max. This place is perfect!"

Max only nodded, her grin growing even bigger. "I know. I was planning on having to do some work to the place, but it's already ideal."

Sketchy continued, "It's got a garage door, so all you have to do is pull in…"

"It's extremely secluded…" Max added in.

"…Old and abandoned…" he supplied.

"…and free." Max declared, putting an end their cryptic conversation.

Alec was felt slightly embarrassed that Sketchy had caught on to something and he hadn't…STILL.

He finally snapped, "WHAT in the _world _are you two going on about?"

Sketchy gave him an incredulous look before replying, "And you're the one with a transgenic IQ?…Dude, it's the perfect place to smuggle stuff into TC."

Present Time

Max smirked. After dropping them off and they were in the tunnels heading back home, she had naturally given Alec a hard time about Sketchy being quicker on the uptake.

She wouldn't let him live that one down for a long time to come. She liked how their roles had reversed; she did the teasing while Alec received the teasing.

It reminded her of how she used to be, carefree, happy, spontaneous, all balanced together with her bad-ass attitude.

What was different? She couldn't help but wonder.

Ben. That's a given, but I was a bitch before that too. Besides, that wouldn't explain why I'm okay now…so, again, what's different?……

It seemed to hit her like a brick-filled dump truck. Logan.

_Logan, _she thought with a bitter smile. _I always thought he was so perfect with his holier-than-thou attitude. Was it because I, myself, always felt so guilty? No…Logan was exciting. Was that all that attracted me to him? The thrill of the heists? Maybe it was. He's always lecturing on doing the right thing, not using my abilities unless it was for the good of mankind. Blah, blah, woof, woof. How could I not realize that what Ben was sprouting at me was true? Sure, he had kind of twisted it a little, but true nonetheless. The only time I ever felt like myself was when I was on a heist, putting my skills to use. What kind of sister am I? To have listened to Logan's morals instead of trying to help her brothers. Now, they were both dead, or might as well have been. And for what? I'm a good person; I did the right thing? Was it really? Or was it just the easiest way?_


	3. S03E03 What You See in the News

**Disclaimer: Don't own Dark Angel. Do own plot.**

Max had tried not to dwell on Logan too much. It had been a week since they got them out, and she was keeping him in the "outta sight, outta mind" box.

She jumped to her feet and started to scale back down from her version of the Space Needle, which she decided she had dubbed the Space Needle 2.

She walked over to the edge. She from experience that there was a pole about five feet down that stuck out about two feet over a window in the top floor apartment.

She smiled to herself before she turned around and jumped backwards off the building, putting her hands out immediately to grab the pole on her way down. The abrupt stop caused her to swing forward and through the window. When she reached the apex of the arc, she let go of the pole and landed silently in a crouch with a feline grin on her face.

She stood up and scanned the room, which she had claimed as her living room. Sometime after they got back from taking OC, Sketch, and Logan out of TC, she had decided that the gym was her new home. No one else had claimed it, and the upstairs was an almost exact clone of her and OC's apartment.

The only difference was the bathroom was bigger. It still didn't have running water, but the shower rooms in the gym did.

Other than that, it had a big living room, with a bar-style kitchen, and two bedrooms. With the gym and showers downstairs and Space Needle 2 on top, she was surprised that she hadn't moved in sooner.

She glanced out the window again. The sun was peaking at the bottom of the skyline. Six. She thought about it for two seconds, then decided that it would be safe enough to go get her stuff and 'baby' from OC's. She missed it.

Plus one little ride would do me good. I'll be back by 8.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AA

Alec shoved a pile of papers off a desk. Where the hell is she?

He ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

Max was missing.

Plain as that. It was 8:00. Everybody was already up in TC: Luke, Dix, Josh, hell-even Mole was already up. And that's what worried him; Mole really liked his beauty sleep.

Max only slept about 2 or 3 hours every night, unless she was catching up.

He had thought that maybe she was, so he asked around, trying to find out if anybody had seen her. Everyone had all told him they'd seen her go into the gym where he found her after her fight with Logan.

He went there and looked around. At first it appeared empty, but he had found stairs. He followed them up six stories before there was a door.

He opened it, and was immediately bombarded with her scent. Vanilla. He smiled and looked around.

Alec couldn't find her in any of the rooms.

He searched an hour for a clue, a note, or even something out of place.

But she definitely wasn't there.

8:30. Where are you Max?

Alec had been so worried after his search through her apartment that he had actually went and talked to Clemente.

"Sorry. I haven't seen Max. What happened?" Clemente asked through the perimeter fence, but Alec had just shaken his head and headed back to HQ.

"Beautiful," said someone in the crowd who had overheard the whole conversation with his impressive ears, after all, they had a 1,000 years worth of selective breeding in them.

He took out a phone and dialed a number, "Otto, I want you to find out what kind of a motorcycle 452 drove when 453 took her out…yes…yes…I know…then search sectors 5 through 12 for it…as soon as possible…can you do that?…good. I want her alive."

Either 452 was on the run like usual and they wouldn't catch her, or she was just temporarily out of TC, which meant she would be here in Seattle.

Between both possibilities, the transgenics still lost their "fearless" leader.

"Oh and Otto…don't mess this up." He closed his phone and put it back in his coat.

Without their idealistic leader, the transgenics would crumble. Yes, today was going to be a good-no…great day. He could almost whistle.

It wasn't even five minutes before his phone rang again.

Grumbling, he answered, "This better be goo-…you found it…already?…where?…ok, send out a team. I'll be there."

White smiled to himself, then fell back into the crowd so as not to be seen. White got out a pen and piece of paper.

Thank you, 494, he wrote.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA A

It was 8:30.

She thought she would be back by 8:00, but it was harder to say goodbye than she thought.

When Max had arrived, she found herself looking at the door of her old apartment.

She had knocked once before she wondered if OC was even there. Max hoped OC had found herself some honey to stay the night with because she didn't feel like answering any questions on why she was out of TC; that and she hated goodbyes.

She put her ear up to the door……

Nothing. She put her ear up to the door again to make sure…when suddenly, the door she was leaning on was yanked open, and she found herself falling.

Max tumbled in and fell as gracefully as a person could fall.

"Max, what the hell?" OC yelled when she saw Max.

"OC, how's it goin?" Max said casually, looking up at her from her position on the floor.

OC stood there for a full minute before she got this determined look on.

"Max, don't you dare try to distract OC, cuz she onna mission to figure out why yo transgenic ass ain't in TC…" she said raising her eyebrow and putting her hand on her hip.

Max gave her a brilliant smile with as much innocence as an efficient killing machine could muster.

"Uh uh. Ain't gonna work girl, so don even go there…now, start 'splainin."

Max sighed, "Came to get my stuff. I didn't want you here cuz it feels like…like I'm sayin goodbye…for good."

Cindy unfolded her arms and welcomed Max into a warm embrace.

"It's gonna be aiight Boo. OC ain't goin nowhere. OC sure as hell ain't gonna sit through this transgenic bitch of a war."

Max laughed sadly.

"I'm gonna help m'boo out any way I can."

Max squeezed OC, "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You'd die from missin me o'course."

They both laughed and packed Max's things.

Twenty minutes later Max stood by the door, holding her bike with her few clothes in the saddlebags. OC and Max just stood there, silently.

"Gotta blaze," Max said, refusing to say goodbye.

Now, it was about 8:30, already later than she had wanted to stay out, but she couldn't resist making one last pit stop.

She felt the cool, graffiti-covered metal surface she had become so familiar with. Just because she wasn't saying goodbye, it didn't mean that she wouldn't miss the Space Needle until she could come out again.

Something reflected the light and caught her eye.

She walked over and grabbed what she had come here for.

It was Ben's necklace of the Blue Lady. He had it in his hand when she saw him standing over the Priest, but after she killed him, she took it. It was all she had of him.

She gingerly reached her hand out and grasped it. She unclasped it, and put it on. The figurine of the Virgin Mary stopped right above the top of her tank top.

Max proceeded to walk over to her thinking spot, to thank whatever god was out there…for letting her have something of his, to remember him by. Something that reminded her of more pleasant times would have been nice, but it was a whole hell of a lot better than nothing.

When she sat down, she heard a hover drone and looked for it. She spotted it about thirty feet down. Max smiled; she loved the Space Needle because even the hover drones didn't come up this high.

She watched the morning sky as she recalled all the memories she had up here. Alec, Logan, Seth, Ben…she unconsciously reached for the necklace, as if she could draw strength from it.

The sound of a gun being cocked seemed to roar through the quietness of the morning.

Max reflexively jumped up, and felt a bullet pierce straight through her side.

Coward, she thought, only the lowest life forms shoot a person from behind.

She heard a very familiar, yet distant voice yelling at the shooter for almost killing her. "Boss wants her alive, Renders!"

She turned around to face her attacker, but found there was about ten equipped men with her as their target. Déjà vu, she thought remembering the night she had lost Seth here on the Needle. They opened fire, and she dodged the bullets while being forced to the edge of the Needle.

She made one of her notorious snap-decisions and jumped, knowing it would be over five hundred feet before she hit ground.

Even transgenics have their limits, and theirs was 40 feet if you were having a lucky day. Too bad I don't have a rope here like last time.

The last thing she heard was White yelling, "44444445555555522222222!"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAA

HQ was deathly silent. They all stared at the TV screen that had delivered the horrid news.

Mole turned the dial on the old-fashioned TV, wanting to catch the details, yet at the same time wanting to turn the blasted thing off and live in ignorance.

Nobody really wanted to find out who the nameless person was, even though most everybody knew.

Suddenly, Alec walked in the room, still wondering where Max could be, and stopped dead in his tracks. A chilling feeling ran up his spine as he assessed HQ.

Joshua was in a corner howling a pitiful, blood-curdling howl.

Luke and Dix were just really quiet. Alec couldn't read any expression off of Mole.

Everyone at headquarters seemed to be in shock or…mourning?

Something on the TV caught his attention.

He looked at the scene, which was eerily familiar. It was a picture of the base of something big and metal…of course, the Space Needle.

At first, he didn't recognize it because of all the police, but he could make out the graffiti covered base and the spot where Max hid her bike when she was up there…

Max.

Suddenly, Alec had this dropping feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew why everyone was acting so strange. He wanted to run away and not hear anymore, but he couldn't.

"Hello, I'm Kellie Carlyle. We are here at the Space Needle, where just recently it was reported that someone jumped off. Witnesses say that the apparent jumper was being shot at. The police aren't releasing any details, but we will keep you updated."

Alec felt dead. That was the only way to put it. Max was ambushed on the Space Needle.

The only other time he had ever cried was when Rachel had died, but he was very close to tears right now.

He walked to his closet-sized office and slammed the door shut. He immediately started punching the wall.

He was so mad; he didn't even feel the blood trickling down his knuckles.

Joshua tried to comfort him, but Alec wouldn't have it.

Alec only looked up when Dix came in and hesitantly said, "They're saying that there was a camera on the roof of a nearby building…"

Alec jumped up only to be stopped by a rough hand on his shoulder, "You don't need to see that," Mole said.

Alec just shrugged Mole's hand off and went to the TV.

Everyone at HQ quieted and got closer trying to watch.

"Hello, I'm Kellie Carlyle covering this tragic event. This morning a person jumped off the Space Needle. Witnesses say they heard gunshots before they saw someone make the 500 foot plummet to their death. We have recently received live footage on the whole thing, Mark…"

The screen was filled with a brilliant picture of the sunrise with the Space Needle right in the middle.

It was blurry because it was so zoomed in.

You couldn't even see the person until a shot was fired and they moved, but nobody at HQ needed to be told, they all knew who it was.

Max jumped up at the same time the bullet was shot, which probably saved her life. If she hadn't jumped up, it would have been her head greeting that bullet. She only hesitated a second, as if she forgot what she was doing, so nobody could tell whether that shot had actually hit her or not.

When she spun around, as if she was going to take the attacker on, everyone assumed with a relieved breath it meant the bullet had missed her.

That's my Maxie, Alec thought to himself, but he was horrified when he saw many more men file out and aim at her. She was covered in red laser dots.

Everyone at HQ held their breath.

She blurred, dodging the bullets. She ran to the edge.

"NO!" Alec shouted, even though he already knew what was going to happen.

You could practically see the wheels turning in her head before she spotted something, made her decision, and jumped.

When she jumped, she revealed a very pissed off man yelling at her, "44444444555555522222222!"

The camera followed her about 30 feet down while she dove head first with transgenic grace. Right before the screen cut off, she started to pull up into a landing position.

The screen stopped, and came back to the news lady. The lady stood there a whole 10 seconds with her mouth agape, before she stuttered out, "Oh my…uh…M-mark…commercial break."

"That's one helluvah way to go down," Mole said.

"She's the leader. She couldn't get captured, she knew we'd try to save her," Dix added respectfully, shaking his head.

Joshua kept howling in the corner.

Alec didn't know what to do, he was confused. Max's bike wasn't in her hiding spot. If she was dead, shouldn't it be there?

"Luke, could you replay the end part," Alec commanded, more than asked.

"Sure, just give me a second to hack into the live stream."

A few minutes later everyone was watching Max fall.

Her eyes are fixed on something…"Could you turn it up?"

Luke did as he was told. Everybody waited to see what was going on in Alec's head, when they all heard it…the faint whirring of a hover drone.

"Well, hot damn!" Mole said.

Alec was so proud of Max at that moment, he wouldn't have been able to say it, "I want two teams to come with me, we're going on a search."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAA

When she landed on the hover drone, it dropped, straining from the freefalling weight, and absorbing her momentum. No broken bones, but she was bleeding a lot and the blood loss was making her light-headed. The trek back to her motorcycle had been a blur of weak fumbling and close misses.

Now Max was on her way home, but she knew she had to pull over soon, but she wanted to make it back to the tunnel entrance since she was sure no one had followed her. She knew she'd be safe there.

It shouldn't be too much farther…where is it? The blood loss had her thoughts all confused, and she wasn't sure if she had taken a wrong turn or if it was a longer drive than she remembered.

Everything was starting to look red, and she wanted nothing more than to just close her heavy eyelids and fall into a deep sleep; but the soldier in her told her that that was exactly what she didn't want to do.

Just as she was about to turn around, she spotted the building. She just drove right in and was surprised when she saw a bunch of people already there, staring at her with shocked expressions.

"Max!" she heard Alec yell.

She didn't respond; she only had enough brain power to focus on her goal.

She parked her bike and dizzily stood up.

Alec watched her confused. She was acting as if she couldn't hear any of them.

"Max, you take off and we can't find you…we all think you die, then you come back and don't even say anything as to why-" Alec lost all abilities to talk when she took her shirt off.

His eyes focused on an ugly looking hole, oh shit, she got shot.

She didn't show any signs of pain, so everyone had hoped for the best. But god, there was so much blood.

Max determinedly bent down next to her bike and pressed her side up against the hot exhaust pipe.

Everyone heard the sizzle of her blood and flesh being cooked.

Max's face contorted in pain, but she held her side against the flaming hot pipe and didn't back off.

As soon as she was done, Max looked at everyone and said with a weak smile, "Miss me?" Before her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell.

Alec caught her before she hit the concrete and carefully laid her down.

Mole ordered the X6's to go scout the area and make sure no one had been following her.

Mole knelt down next to Alec and starting inspecting Max's wound. It was a solid shot, and Mole noticed that it was- surprisingly-below an old gunshot wound.

"Alec, when did Max get shot?" he asked.

Alec looked bewildered before answering, "I'm not sure."

"How could you not know; you've been with her since the escape, haven't you?"

"Not right after the escape, I left Seattle for a while."

"But I'd say that wound isn't more than a month old," Mole stated while he started inspecting her freshly cauterized bullet hole, "Damn…she's nothing, if not practical."

Alec was looking at her old bullet hole. He was amazed as to how Max had kept it from him; he was trained to detect these things. He was mentally counting days, matching when this could have taken place. She had gone about her days as normal. The only thing that could've raised any suspicions was the fact that she was absent from work two days. Normal had raised hell. It had been a bad couple of days for the workers at Jam Pony. He hadn't even considered why she was absent.

Joshua noticed the saddle bags on her bike. He walked over and looked in, finding all her clothes. He pulled out a shirt and threw it to Mole who snatched it reflexively out of the air. Mole threw it…

…and it hit Alec in the face.

The shirt hitting Alec's face brought him back from his thoughts.

Mole helped him put it on her, so they wouldn't rip her wound. As they were doing so, Alec noticed that she was wearing a necklace of a lady in a blue robe. It looked like the Virgin Mary. He didn't think her to be the type to wear jewelry, especially not the religious kind. In fact, he was pretty sure he would have noticed this thing if she had been wearing it…which meant it was new.

He gently put the pendant down. He was just too happy she was alive.

Max awoke disoriented, wondering where she was. She stood up, but felt a pain in her side; all the events that happened yesterday came flooding back to her. She groaned.

"Easy, you shouldn't try to move," she heard from somewhere behind her. Startled, she spun around, but collapsed to the floor in pain, clutching her side.

Strong arms picked her up bridal style and placed her back on a couch. She looked up to see Alec's face staring at her, worry written all over it, "How long have I been out?"

"Couple days, you lost quite a bit of blood…You ok?" he asked, not moving his hand from her arm.

Max tried to shrug, and immediately regretted it, "Bullet shot aside…I'm just peachy," she quipped.

"Max." Alec warned.

"I feel like crap," she admitted. She gave his face a faux grimace. It was exhausted, with bags under his eyes, "but considering I'm the one who got shot, and I look better than you do…I'd say I'm…just peachy."

Alec gave her a glare before he sat down at the end of the couch and put her feet in his lap.

He had felt so helpless when he saw her on the news. He never wanted that to happen again. If anything happened to Max…

Alec started rubbing her feet to keep his mind off of it.

Not even two minutes later, Max was out cold. She looked so innocent and helpless…Alec never thought in a million years that he would use those words to describe Max, but that's exactly what she was when she slept.

Mole, Josh, and him had taken Max up to her apartment above the gym. He assumed that this was where she wanted to live, so he had gone out and rummaged up some furniture. All together, it was a pretty successful trip; he had found two queen beds, a couch, and a coffee table.

Alec carefully lifted Max's feet off his lap and got up. When he was standing, he slowly put her feet back down on the couch. He disappeared into her bedroom and came back with a blanket.

Okay, he was aware that she probably wasn't that cold since it was August, but it was raining, and Seattle rains can get pretty chilly.

Alec bent down and tucked her in. When he was done, he made sure she was asleep before kissing her on the forehead and whispering against it, "Don't you ever scare me like that again."

Alec froze when she stirred, but she didn't seem to wake up. So he went back to her room to hang her clothes in her closet.

He believed that Max hadn't waken up and was still sleeping.

But back on the couch Max was far from asleep. Alec's words kept burning through her mind, Don't you ever scare me like that again.

Max knew she should pretend she was asleep; if she woke up, Alec would be embarrassed and avoid her, but she couldn't keep the warm smile from spreading across her face.

Of course, she didn't smile very long. What about Logan? Max scowled.

He's always putting her in a bad mood, maybe I should end it for real with him...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA

Max woke up feeling remarkably refreshed. She hadn't slept that long in a while, and she desperately needed it.

Her senses were immediately bombarded with the fragrant aroma of coffee. Max smiled. Coffee is good, real good.

She was about to stand up and get herself a cup when she noticed Alec strolling toward her with two cups. He also, looked well-rested; or more so than yesterday.

Max sat up and pulled her knees to her chest to make room for Alec on the couch. It hurt her wound, but she didn't show it because Alec would just scold her and keep her in bed the rest of the day, and Max didn't want to stay sitting down one second longer than she needed to.

"Good morning," Alec chirped energetically, as he handed her a cup.

"You know, I never pictured you as a morning person," Max declared after a moment of silence.

"There's a lot of things that you don't know about me," he stated mysteriously.

"Even though we're both transgenics, and we've known each other for a year?" Max asked skeptically.

"Well, I've known you for a year; you've put up with me for a year."

Max looked like she was about to protest, so Alec stopped her with her mouth halfway open.

"Don't even try to deny it. You don't know the first thing about me," he warned.

"Okay, okay. I had sort of a…grudge against you for awhile, but don't act like you know everything about me."

Alec was, also, about to object when he remembered her old gunshot wound.

"You're right, I don't," he stated and laughed when the sober comment made Max choke on her java.

"Come again?" she asked exasperated.

Alec chuckled, "I said- you're right."

Max's eyes got huge and all her attention was on him. She turned to him and put a hand on his forehead. Alec batted it away, but she ignored it and instead, started inspecting his head.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

She didn't even pause in her examination of his head when she answered, "Well, you don't have a temperature. Which means you're not sick, so I'm thinking you must have hit your hea-"

"You think I'm delirious because I agreed with you?"

"No… what's got me worried is the fact that you admitted I was right," she said with an adorable yet worried face.

"Actually, I know you're right."

"How?" Max asked with narrowed eyes.

"When did you get shot, and why didn't you tell me?" Alec asked, answering her question with a question of his own.

Max was confused. "Which one?"

"Which one?" he breathed, "Jesus Max, how many times have you been shot?"

"Four times."

"Four times! God, did they teach you anything at Manticore?"

"Yes," she said getting offended, "In fact, if Manticore hadn't taught me anything, I'd have been dead a long time ago…besides pretty boy, other than Jam Pony, how many times have you actually been shot at?"

"Uhh…let's see, there's-oh wait…but what about-…no…hmm," he stopped and looked at her, " Wait! When I rescued you from White. Oh, and when you took down Manticore; and there's the time you asked for help saving those mermaids… and when you rescued me from jail…and when you asked me to sell andy to the Steelheads…hold on, what are you, some kind of jinx?"

You're poison 452. Renfro's voice said.

Everyone around her died: Ben, Zack, Seth, the Clan, Eva, Tinga-hell even Logan was shot after she met him; not to mention that close call with Cindy.

No.

Everyone you come into contact with…

I couldn't…

You kill everyone you love.

Stop.

A wolf in sheep's clothing.

Stop! I never meant to hurt any of them.

A singular tear rolled down her cheek for the guilt she felt for all those people. One single tear, one moment of weakness, before she wiped it away like she did those horrible memories.

Alec acted like he didn't notice her wipe a tear away, but the truth was he had. In fact, he probably could've convinced himself it was some weird trick of the light, but he could still see the pain burning in her eyes…and now he knew why she felt like she always had to save everyone and why everything was her fault; she does think she's a jinx.

He gave into his overwhelming feeling and put an arm around her, not caring whether he lived through it with his arm still attached.

Alec studied Max's face for any telltale signs of anger, but she seemed like she was still in her own world.

"You know I was just kidding, right Maxie?" he asked, trying to get some sort of a response, even if it meant bodily harm heading his way, which, as he predicted, it did.

She elbowed him in the side, "Don't call me that."

"Never again," Alec said immediately, implying that he had absolutely every intention of continuing. "Never again."

He stood up, toasted her with a sly grin and his coffee cup, before walking back to the kitchen.

Max sat there, sipping her coffee while she watched him fiddle with a pot of hot water in the kitchen.

_I thought I had gotten over everything Manticore had done to me. Then life goes and throws me a curve ball to make generations of baseball players jealous. _ A bowl Alec sat offhandedly down started to wobble on the counter, teetering towards the edge. 

_Maybe there was a lesson to learn here. Like we could never really escape Manticore no matter how hard we try. _The bowl continued to careen around, quickly losing its balance.

_Then again, maybe it's just a reminder. _Max took another sip as she watched Alec catch the bowl just before it hit the ground and shattered into a million pieces.

_A reminder that no matter how hard or how far you run you can never really escape your past because it's a part of you. But that's not so bad. The past is always big and scary when you look at it through grey-colored glasses. _She watched him smile.

_Maybe I just need someone who was there, who understands what I went through. Someone who can catch me if I fall._

Max's small smile disappeared as a frown appeared on her face. She brought the cup up and stared into its black depths. Renfro's voice echoed back up to her…too quiet at first to make out the words, but growing louder until Max could hear that it was just one word being repeated over and over. Poison, poison, poison…

_Then again, maybe I just need to stay away from everyone. It's probably safer that way. _

"Max?"

Poison, poison, poison…

She looked up from her dark musings to see Alec watching her with a frown on his face.

"You okay?" he asked slowly.

A brilliant smile lit her face. "Always."

Alec didn't look convinced, but he went back to putting pots and plates into previously emptied cabinets.

The smile slipped off her face when he was no longer looking.

Renfro's voice reached a crescendo, giving one last whispered, "poison," before falling silent.

_Yes, spacing herself would be best for everyone involved. _


	4. S03E04 Dancing in the Rain

It took some persuasion, but Alec finally let Max go out and do something. In short, the only reason he let her come out was because he couldn't deny that it was the idea had merit. I mean White would never be expecting Max to be out of TC so soon after being shot. Hell, even Max wasn't expecting it, but surprisingly Alec had agreed to let her go-

"Max, what's your middle name?" a voice asked interrupting her thoughts.

-of course he wouldn't let her go anywhere unless he came too, so here she was trying to think of a plan to lose Alec so she could break up with Logan, all while pretending to shop.

Alec had gotten bored so he bought some sort of Mad Libs book, as a result, all morning she had been answering stupid little questions like: What's a good dog's name?, Name a noun., What's your favorite color?…and so on.

Max let out an annoyed sigh, "Don't have one," she stated while pretending to read the back of a shampoo bottle.

"...that's weird…but if you say so…"

Yes, that's right. She was going to do it. Max was going to break up with Logan. It sounded so simple as she said it, like something that was part of a to do list.

Pick up laundry.

Drop off the car.

Break up with Logan Cale.

Check, check, and…working on it. As soon as she ditched Alec.

"D…O…N…T…A…V…O…N…E. Dontavone…hmm…it does sort of have a catchiness to it. Max Dontavone Guevara. It sounds French. Is it French? Cause you know, chicks with a French accent are so…"

It had been a week a little over a week since she had last seen Logan. At the beginning of the week she had decided that she was going to seriously think about doing it. She had stressed and sweated over the pros and cons and the nons, and every single consequence that might come with the termination of the relationship between her and her cyber-journalist paraplegic. About halfway through the week, after exploring every possible scenario and then some, she had decided to just go through the motions of her hectic daily routine at TC and by the end of the week she would reflect on her feelings. After that, she gave herself thirty seconds to write down yes or no on a piece of paper: Yes – she should break up with him. No – she should stay with him.

"Hey," Alec said, sounding affronted as he cut into her thoughts. "You never gave me a middle name!"

Max barely refrained from rolling her eyes as he started going off about what kind of middle name he would like. Max tuned him out again and went back to her thoughts.

The thirty second time-limit she had given herself worked out ideally because Max really made the best snap decisions. It made her a procrastinator to the core, but it kept her from thinking about something too hard. Some people would say she was thinking with her heart instead of her brain. Max wasn't such a romantic. She knew that by limiting herself, it forced her to react solely on her instincts. And so far, they had never led her astray.

"No, I think I want something Irish. To match my last name…you know chicks dig a Scottish brogue," he said in a thick Irish accent. "Then again, they like the Australian accent as well…" He said, enunciating the vowels, sounding like Crocodile Dundee.

A stroke of brilliance coming to her, Max cut him off before he could start in on how hot the babes found those Ozzies, "Wanna go see if Sketchy is at Crash?"

"It's _has _been a while since I beat the guy at pool…"

Max barely refrained from rolling her eyes at his cockiness. Not that he would have noticed as he was too busy reminiscing about the "good ol'" days. Logan would have said he was abusing his powers against "us normal folk." Well, if he beat him, he would have. But Logan was better at pool than he was chess, so there was no need to complain.

"Ok, let's go," Alec said finally.

As if there had been any debate at all.

The courtroom was full to the brim today and seemingly stretching at the sides. It wasn't a surprise, though, to Judge Akers. Probably even a few of his court officers were used to the crowd by now. There had been enough cases to pick up the pattern. His secretary certainly had. Just this morning he had walked in only to pass her as she informed a crew of people where the extra fifty folding chairs should go and how they could be arranged so that they were incriminating any of the emergency exits.

Controversial cases had always been fuller than your everyday case, but this was borderline absurd. The courtroom wasn't that large. The larger ones had been ransacked after the Pulse due to a revolt against the law. Judge Akers couldn't remember what it was like to have a pristine courtroom with elbow room.

A loud thunderclap boomed overhead, and he absently reached up to brush some of the plaster from his hair. Quickly he moved the pot on his desk over about an inch. He would have to inform his secretary that the crack had enlarged so she would know where to place it. Wouldn't do to ruin official documents due to a little Seattle rain, though there were files he would rather toss in a fire. This case was one of them.

Due to the limited number of courtrooms after the Pulse, only the top judges had kept their positions. Funny, he used to be top of the world, lined up for the governor's job in a couple of years. Now he was sitting in room that leaked and dropped ceiling on your head if someone sneezed too loud.

Not only that, but the room was built to hold about seventy-five people. With the fifty extra chairs, the capacity was nearly doubled, giving the resemblance to a sardine can. When it wasn't raining (funny, right) they could open the windows to let some air in. As this was Seattle, the judge had gotten used to sweating every time they had a case pertaining to transgenics.

"Ames White, do you admit that you were caught on film firing upon an unarmed transgenic?" he asked with a world-weary voice. He already knew how this would end.

One would think that with all the corruption and scrambling of the cities that judging would have been a lost trade completely. The Pulse had swiveled everything around until it was high chaos. Judge Akers was glad to see that his profession had not been another unfortunate outcome, one more death to the body count wrought forth of the Pulse, specifically his position as the Washington State Judge. Many judges couldn't say the same thing. He wasn't a particularly self-centered man; it was something of a point of pride for not being shallow. He was an honest man, one of the few, who had survived in politics. He wasn't glad judges still existed just so he could still bring in money to the family of four he had at home. He was pleased he was still a judge because one day, when they were trying to pull out of the depression, he would be there to help send corrupted officials to the can. Particularly men like Ames White. They really made his skin crawl.

Unfortunately, that day had yet to arrive. And so all Judge Akers could do right now was sit here and watch as White looked him in the eye, smiled, and lied through his teeth. He could probably lie while sitting on a stack of Bibles and still sleep like a baby at night.

White just smiled, while his lawyer, a type of man whom the judge also didn't like, stood up. His name was Leroy Cooley. "Let's not be rash here, Judge Akers," he said smoothly. He indicated the film. "It's a rather grainy film. A lot of white noise. That person could be any dark haired, five foot eight man."

The judge suspected that White's lawyer had at one point dated his daughter…another strike against him. He was a smooth talker.

"So you admit that the person in the film is dark-haired and five foot, eight inches tall?" he asked.

The lawyer floundered for a moment. "Wha – Objection, your honor!"

The judge leaned his head to the side, resting it in the palm of his hand. "On what grounds?" he asked, bored.

"You're showing favoritism! You can't do the plaintiff's job."

"Oh, how terribly horrible of me," the judge said dryly. He looked over at the other lawyer. "Mr. Godden, would you like to handle this?"

Mr. Godden let out a miniscule smile while he nervously tightened his tie.

Now that was somebody the judge wouldn't mind his daughter dating. Young and humble.

Mr. Godden cleared his throat, paused dramatically, and then said, "Mr. Cooley, do you admit that the person in the film is dark-haired and five foot, eight inches tall?"

The judge gave him a small, proud smile.

"Objection," Mr. Cooley cried.

Judge Akers growled. "On what grounds?"

"You…he…I…I don't know!"

The judge nodded, fighting to keep how pleased he was to see the cool-headed lawyer stumbling. "Overruled, now answer the question."

The lawyer tried to think of all the outcomes his answer would lead to. Finally he said with slow patience, "Yes, to me, the man looks like he could be dark-haired and five-eight."

The jurors murmured among themselves. White, for the first time since he had walked into the courtroom was not smiling.

"But," Mr. Cooley added, "There are about 10,000 of those walking down the streets of Seattle as we know it."

"Ah," Mr. Godden murmured with a smile, "But how many of those 10,000 are special agents with FBI back-up?"

Intelligent to boot, the judge thought, looking at the young lawyer in a new light. Definitely more there than meets the eye.

Judge Akers looked back to see Mr. Cooley and Special Agent-in-Charge White floundering. It was a pleasant sight that lasted until the big double doors opened. A small man walked in carrying a folder. Judging from the satisfied smirks that now adorned both White and Cooley's faces, the messenger did not bear good news.

The man timidly stepped up to the podium. Judge Akers looked down his nose at him.

"S-sir," the man started, "O-orders from the governor. White is to be released, free of all charges, no questions asked." He held out his hand with the folder in it.

Judge Akers sighed. It had been a good show. Mr. Godden had been a pleasant surprise. He held up his hand, stopping the small man from placing the folder on his desk. "There's no need for that, I already know what it says."

In a louder voice, he said to the courtroom as a whole, "I hereby conclude the case concerning Ames White. These proceedings are now closed." He picked up his gavel and knocked it against the sound block.

Everywhere people began standing up and filing out. White and his lawyer was one of the last to leave. A prickling at the nape of his neck while he was filing his paperwork on the case gave the big man pause. When Judge Akers had looked up, he had met a pair of grey eyes glaring at him, absolutely molten with fury.

He watched as White leaned over to speak with his lawyer.

Judge Akers also prided himself on being intimidating, not the other way around, but suddenly it felt like something was telling him to leave the courtroom immediately.

He raised himself slowly, gathered his paperwork with calm hands, and walked to the door that lead to the hall without acknowledging the burning eyes he could feel on the back of his head, following his movements until he was out of sight.

Judge Akers was now in Ames White's sights. It was not a good feeling. He wanted to rush home to his wife and son, maybe give his daughter a call. Why didn't he tell them he loved them today? He didn't do it often enough and from now on that was going to change.

Max figured that she could slip out for a while and go talk to Logan in private, which she did. She was sitting at their table nursing a beer while watching Alec and Sketchy out of the corner of her eye. When Alec was interrupted by some blonde bimbo, Max hurriedly wrote on a piece of napkin, "Be back a.s.a.p. -Max" and rushed out of Crash.

Max didn't want to use her JamPony badge, and didn't feel like trudging around in sewage, so she decided to climb to the rooftops and just run there that way.

It was exhilarating, even when she had to take it down a notch because of her wound. She hadn't had this much fun in a long time.

Max made it in about five minutes, despite having to go slow to keep an eye out for those pesky hover drones. She had to hurry because she was almost positive Alec would notice that she was gone by now. He wouldn't go to the Needle because it was probably swarming with the extra police that weren't guarding TC. He would, however, look for her at Cindy's which gave her about ten minutes, give or take.

She took a deep breath and looked up at Joshua's house. It hadn't changed much in the few weeks since she had last seen it. Most houses don't show signs of wear in that amount of time, but Max had still been expecting something more profound when she showed up. So much had happened in the past few weeks that it felt more like years since she had been on the wide-rickety steps of Sandeman's house.

Right. Quit stallin Max, and get your sorry ass up there. Max walked up the creaky old front steps and stood in front of the door. She was about to knock when her transgenic hearing picked up some very weird noises. Weird that is, until she recognized them as moans.

"Oh, Logan."

"Asha."

Max rapt loudly on the door, not wanting to hear anymore. She heard the rustling of clothes being put hastily on. These were the times that she wished she didn't have exceptional hearing.

She wanted to laugh when Logan answered the door and tried to act as if he wasn't just having sex, "Hey Max. I was just-"

"Transgenic hearing," she warned before he could finish making a lie to her. Surprisingly, she wasn't mad at the fact that he was having sex, but at the fact that the perfectly moral Eyes Only was lying to her. It left her feeling betrayed.

He had the decency to look down ashamed, and that gave Max enough satisfaction to not get too angry.

"Can I talk to you?" she asked curtly, gesturing for him to join her on the porch. He hesitated briefly before slowly shutting the door and going to stand in front of her. Max propped her elbows on the railing behind her and leaned back, trying to diffuse some of the tension.

Max always approached things directly, so she decided that that would be the best way to go, since he shouldn't care too much…after all, he did have Asha's shoulder to cry on.

"I actually came by to break up, believe it or not," she said trying to hide the humor in her voice.

Logan looked as if he had been physically punched, "If this is about Asha-"

"It's not, but she sure does make it easier for me. Thing is, I'm not nearly as upset as I should be…which is proof that it's really over for you and me."

"I suppose we both saw it coming, huh…Oh, I have the location on the blueprints for TC's tunnels…Luke asked me to find them. Be right back," Logan said opening the door and disappearing inside.

She heard Asha try to ask him what was going on, but Logan cut her off, promising to tell her later.

He returned to the front porch and handed Max a pack of papers.

"There's everything you need to know…blueprints of the building, security, rooms, escapes…yada yada. You know the deal by now."

"Thanks Logan."

"Hey, just like the good old days. Did you see the news about that person who jumped off the Needle. It seemed pretty suspicious to me; gunshots, no body found…sounds like a government cover-up. I was going to look into it, if you felt like doing another EO mission…" Logan trailed off when he saw Max's face. "What?"

"I would love to do another EO mission Logan, but that particular one is a waste of time."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just trust me," Max asked.

Logan looked pained. "You know I do, but I can't just ignore…"

Max's smile faltered. "Oh, right. I forgot how you get when it concerns EO stuff."

"Look, Max-"

"No, it's fine. It was White chasing down a transgenic. But no need to worry, they survived to tell the tale."

"That explains a body never being recovered, but how did he survive a jump like that?"

Max gave a secretive smile. "Word on the street is the person rode jumped a hover drone and rode safely to the ground."

Logan's stare became sharp, but he didn't say anything. She didn't offer.

After a brief awkward silence, she held up the papers and wiggled them back in forth.

"I better go take care of this."

"Take back up," Logan demanded. "It's a pretty popular building. And dress nice," he added with an odd twinkle in his eye.

She frowned but nodded anyway, and then couldn't resist the urge to say goodbye to Asha from where she was eavesdropping behind the door.

"Uh,…b-bye Max," Asha managed to stutter out.

Max just smiled and made her way back to Crash, hoping that Alec would be there, so they could get the blueprints together. When she arrived, he was gone. She waited about ten minutes before she decided she would just do it on her own.

"Hey, Lamar," Max called to the bartender, "You know Alec?"

"Pro pool player, high alcohol tolerance, resident ladies man, leaves good tips…yeah, I know him."

Max held back a smile. "If he shows up, could you tell him to wait here, and if I'm not back in an hour, that he should head home."

"Sure thing, Max."

"Thanks."

She headed off to go find some "nice clothes."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Max stared at the building for a good ten minutes before she just had to laugh. If she didn't she would've gone back to Joshua's old house and strangled Logan. Cheeky little thing. Now was a hell of a time for him to grow a sense of humor.

"Pretty popular building," Max mimicked to herself as she watched the steady flow of people coming out of the Washington State Courthouse where they were met with flashes and microphones being shoved in their faces.

Must have been a pretty big case today.

She had been multitasking. While she imagined how she was going to get back at Logan, she had kept a keen eye on the flow of people. There were a few people left behind, but majority of the people, she assumed, were now outside talking to the reporters. Now was as good a time as any.

She stood from her chair, smoothed the grey pencil skirt and pulled down on the matching jacket. She picked up the bill, winced as she read it (ten dollars for a Styrofoam cup of coffee that tasted like goat piss), and grudgingly left the money along with a tip on the table.

Her high heels clacked as they hit the pavement in a confident succession. She walked right behind the news people, purposefully heading to the side of the building. For the briefest of moments a chill ran down her spine as she thought she recognized the low threatening drawl of a certain Familiar, but she had already made it to the side of the building. White's presence didn't change the plans, just added to the long list of obstacles.

She kept in the urge to look around. If on the off chance that a person from the crowd was watching her, she didn't want to look suspicious. Instead, she clipped on the badge that Logan had put in the folder, walked up to the side door, and using her body to block most of the view, picked the lock in less than two seconds, a personal record. She didn't hesitate as she pushed the door open, but a mental sigh of relief sounded at how no alarms went off.

To anyone watching, a worker had just used her keys to get inside.

Her eyes quickly assessed the hall as she continued her walk in. In the same fluid movement she had been in since she walked across the street she turned and shut the door, locking it back up. She slipped the tools back into her sleeve.

She turned back to the hallway lined with doors on all sides. They were the heavy kind with small rectangular windows. They wouldn't even see her face if they even noticed her walking past. She mentally pulled up the blueprints and details from the pile.

The side door, apart from giving her a discreet entrance, allowed her to stick to the side halls and avoid the tall double doors that lead into the main courtroom where most of the activity would be.

She passed somebody, but they had their face buried in a folder and hadn't even looked up at her.

She made a left down another hallway. This time she counted the doors. When she reached the tenth door, she tried the handle. It was locked. This time she did look around.

It was clear. She brought out her tools and picked it. When no alarm went off, she entered.

It was dark inside, but she didn't dare turn on the light. Instead she pulled out a pen-sized flashlight that she originally on carried when she was on a heist, but with the tough times had taken to carrying all the time along with her lock-picking tools and various other tools. She turned the top and shined it on rows and rows of boxes.

She found the box labeled "blueprints." She put the penlight in her mouth, reached up, and pulled the box down. She crouched on the floor in front of it. The lid was covered in many different colored layers of dust, a good sign. She carefully used the side to lift the lid off and sat it on the ground, careful not to disturb any of the dust.

She flipped through the folders, unsure what exactly it would be under. She was positive it wasn't termed Terminal City pre-Pulse. Before the chemical leak, it had been a neighborhood with a science center in the middle. It could have been an honest research institute or a government cover-up like…

"Manticore IA?" she asked aloud, holding up a file. There were two more folders: Manticore IIA and Manticore IB. She placed all three folders down on the ground and went back to searching.

She came across two other folders that sounded promising, Trealis Research and Graver's Institute of Technology, but after a quick perusal both were placed back in the box. The next one she found, though, Institute of Technology and Treatment, was a hit. ITT was located right in the center of TC consisting of approximately a dozen of the largest buildings, including HQ.

Her eyes froze when they came across the word Manticore.

Manticore and ITT, co-run?

Not good.

Max didn't take the time to read it all. She finished going through the box, just in case, but the only thing that pertained to TC or the tunnels was in the file she clutched in her hand. Using the very tips of her fingers, she placed the lid back on the box and pushed it onto the shelf. She picked up the three files on Manticore and walked to the door.

She was just about to open the door when she heard talking right outside her door.

It was a voice she recognized and dreaded. She braced herself for White, and whoever he was talking with to come bursting through the door. But they didn't. She carefully walked up to the door and put her ear against it.

"But you won the case," someone was saying.

"I can't have him causing doubts," White answered. "It only takes one seed. And do you know what will happen to that seed?" There was a silence. "It will become a tree with more seeds. And we do not want a forest of protestors. The transgenics do not need _anyone _on their side." There was another pause, and when White spoke again, Max could almost picture his smirk. "Threaten his family, kill his cat, but make sure the message is…_memorable_."

There was receding footsteps then.

"Well, boys, you heard him." There was a shuffling of steps where Max found herself trying to discern how many pairs of feet there were, but stopped herself. There had to be at least three left, and if even one of those men were Familiars, she would be sorely outnumbered. It was hard to beat them at full health, and that she was not.

A door was opened and a young man's voice asked what was going on, before it was muffled as the door closed. There was a few thumps loud enough to get through two closed doors and reach Max's transgenic ears.

"Shit," she said softly. She didn't have to think about what she was doing. She put the folders down beside the door and pushed out into the hall.

There was a guy who was standing guard in the hall didn't even have a chance to open his mouth before he dropped to the ground after a professionally-placed side-chop to his neck. She wasted two seconds dragging his body to the open storage room. She closed the storage door and walked up to the closed door of the young guy's office.

Max didn't bother with the lock. She was already blowing her cover. She just turned the handle until the lock snapped. The movements quieted momentarily inside the room. Someone right next to the door said, "Yo Donny, did you hear that?"

"Stay away from that stupid door, you bloody idiot," an accented voice answered back. Max was reminded of Alec when he had done his Scottish accent.

Max listened as the first guy ignored Donny and leaned closer to the door and then hit the door with her shoulder as hard as she could. There was a satisfying crack as it hit his head. Two down. She kept pushing until he was crammed, unconscious between the door and the wall. It was the first look she took of the room. The guy she hit with the door had dropped his gun right on the floor in front of her, but other than that the room was normal looking. There were two men left. One had been leaned over holding a bloody knife, but had straightened when one of his people went down. When he had stood up, he had given her an uninterrupted look of the young man. His wrists and mouth were taped. His face was swelling in spots, blood matted his hair, and his shirt was open, showing the intricate carvings from the bloody knife. His shoulders were held back against the chair by the last man.

The sight was sickening, making her own wound hurt and causing a wave of nausea to pass over her that she was forced to ignore.

"Somebody order a pizza?" she asked as she kicked the unconscious man's gun at the two men. It wasn't a full kick, due the pencil skirt hindering her movements, but it was enough. The knife-wielder dodged, but the second man took it full in the face, dropping like a bird.

Max gave an unapologetic shrug and said, "Oops."

The last man looked down at his fallen comrade while he twirled his knife. "Nice shot, lassie."

She recognized his voice as belonging to Donny.

The young man struggled against his restraints, but Donny paid no attention to him, so Max was forced to do the same. Quickly she ripped her skirt up on the sides, accepting that she would never be able to return the outfit now. Logan would be most disappointed at her return to petty theft.

The Donny raised an eyebrow at her actions, but she ignored it as she crouched down and brought her fists up. "Just bring it."\

He gave a shrug, and with one last spin of his knife, charged her. His arm swung out at her head, and she easily dodged it, giving a swipe to his feet while she was low to the ground. He fell on his back, but rolled backwards in a show of impressive abdominal strength that almost impossible.

"You must be Familiar," Max noted, almost to herself.

Donny's ice blue eyes lit with understanding and an intense hatred. "You must be transgenic."

He swung out again, his knife a lightning bolt of flashy speed. She spun around with the direction of his arm, causing it to graze the back of her neck. She could already feel the blood trickle down her collar.

"That's gonna stain," she growled.

Donny smirked, giving a cocky twirl, toss, and catch of his knife.

"I wouldn't worry 'bout it too much, lassie. No one gives a hoot 'bout lowlife transgenics, nor how they dress."

He was trying to distract her, but she kept her eyes on the knife. He feinted left, but she saw the knife angled to go right. She turned and met his lunge with her back, catching his outstretched arm across her shoulder. She pulled down, reflexes causing him to let go of the knife, which she caught with her left hand mid-air. She leaned forward, taking him over her and down to the ground where she slammed his knife clear through his foot and into the floor.

"Ow," he said emotionlessly. He grabbed her arm and pulled her on top of him. "Tha' wasn't very nice, miss," he said inches from her face.

She struggled, but this was exactly the thing she had been trying to avoid. His hands clenched around her to bruising. Distantly she could hear the young man who was still taped to the chair going frantic.

A memory of another formidable foe flashed before her eyes. They couldn't feel pain either, with the exception of one spot.

Max smiled a sweet saccharine smile that confused the Familiar. She brought her knee up swiftly, watching his face. His eyes bulged out and his hands loosened on her.

"Sweet mother bloody bird crazy transgenic filthy-"

"Night, night, Donny," Max said as she delivered a blow to his head that cut off his rant.

She set to work about tying up all the unconscious men before she went to the young man who had gone strangely quiet. When she noticed, she had thought he had some fatal injury she hadn't known about. Her eyes flew to his face, and she had startled to see clear green eyes staring back at her.

Slowly she held her hands up and walked up to him. "I'm not going to hurt you…" she looked at his name plate, "…Mr. Godden. Now, I'm going to untie you, but you have to promise not to yell."

He gave a curt nod. She still hesitated a moment before she walked up to him and ripped the tape on his wrist. While she was working on his other wrist he reached up. She tensed. He froze. Slowly, he pointed to his mouth. Max nodded and stepped back up to him. Very slowly this time, he reached up and pulled the tape from his mouth. Max knew that he owed her his life, but she still waited for him to shout and give her away. He didn't.

She finished untying his wrists. "Are you okay?"

He gave her a look worth a thousand words. "Is that a serious question?"

"No need to be an asshole." Max grit out, giving a particularly hard yank on the tape.

"Ooowwww," he stretched out loudly.

"All done," Max said, tossing the tape on the desk. She turned around and looked around. She was sure the rope would hold the Familiar(s?). She had been extra careful on each of them, though she suspected the only Familiar present was Donny.

She looked back over at Mr. Godden. He didn't seem to be in shock, but she wanted to make sure he picked up these instructions she had for him. "You gotta first name, kid?"

He slowly looked up and scoffed at her, though it caused him to wince. "I'm not a kid. I'm sure I'm older than you," he said, testing out his movements.

Max paused. Yeah, physically he probably was older than her. "Whatever," she said as she walked over to him. She grabbed his armrests and leaned in close. "I don't have time for this so listen up." Already she could detect someone's heart rate picking up as they slowly gained consciousness. She heavily believed it belonged to Donny.

"You have family?"

Mr. Godden stiffened.

Max barely refrained from rolling her eyes. "For god's sake, I'm not going to hurt you."

He still remained silent.

"Fine, don't answer. Just listen. Ol' Donny boy over there is about to wake up, so I need to tell you this quick. If you have somewhere else to go, go there. And take your family if you value their lives. He's just one of many that White can send after you-"

"Wait, Ames White is behind this? How do you know?"

"It doesn't matter," she said quickly.

"And you talk like there was only one guy here today. From where I'm sitting, there's three."

"Four actually," Max corrected. She indicated over her shoulder. Mr. Godden jumped, and Max knew she was right in assuming that Donny had woken up. She turned around quickly, nearly jumping herself when she saw he was sitting up and glaring holes into her. Instead she gave him a calm look, before she turned back around to Mr. Godden.

"Donny's the one that will give you the most trouble. Call in the authorities after I leave and do not, under any circumstances, go near him."

Mr. Godden swallowed visibly and nodded, suddenly serious.

Max smiled. "Good." She patted his head. Max smoothed out her skirt and walked over to stand as close to Donny as she dared. Too close to risk giving her back to him, she kept eye contact with Donny, but spoke to Mr. Godden, "Remember what I said and do it quickly."

With that, she leaned in and gave him a lightning chop to the neck. He slumped over.

Max turned. "Get you and your family somewhere safe."

She turned to leave.

"Jeffery."

Max turned back around. "What?"

"My name. It's Jeffery."

Max smirked. "Jeffery Godden?"

Jeffery grimaced. "My parents had a sense of humor."

Max was smiling as she left his room and grabbed the folders off the ground in the storage room. She checked to make sure that the man's ropes were still tight before heading to Crash. Hopefully where Alec was.

She knew Alec would be spitting furious, but she still had a spring in her step.

_Carrying a burden for such a long time has a way of settling over you so that you almost don't notice how heavy you were until it's gone. I didn't even know I had a burden until I left Logan's place with just a few less problems and a few more answers. Not only that, but running the rooftops today was the most exhilarating thing I had done in a long time. Logan had always been hounding me to only use my powers for the good of mankind. And there was nothing wrong with using them for that, like some sort of sorry heroine. But a chick I used to know once said that all work and no play makes you a dull boy. How true it was. Running just for fun was so simple, but it made me feel years younger. Like dancing in the rain._


	5. S03E05 Namesake

It was one of those rare sunrises in Seattle. The key words being _sun _and _Seattle. _Needless to say, Max had been up on SN2 (Space Needle 2) for a few hours, anticipating it. The sun had crested the horizon, chasing away the remaining shadows of the night. She watched the view like a late-sleeper squeezing in those last few minutes of sleep before the alarm sounded. The pinks and purples danced in twirls around a brilliant orange sun.

Beautiful.

And short, as an overcast became known as the clouds moved in to cover the sun. She couldn't help but to think that those two minutes of sunlight were worth every bit of lost sleep.

She stood up, turned around, and jumped backwards off the building. She grabbed the pole and swung through the window, landing silently in a graceful crouch, her fingertips barely touching the floor.

Max smiled to herself at not waking up Alec. You heard right, Alec refused to leave the night before. He claimed that she was too much of a flight risk, something about it being in the 09er genes? She would have been offended last night if she had been awake enough to care. But a lot had happened in one day.

She had started off the day with a nice stroll through the store while Alec pestered her about nouns and middle names. She headed to a bar where she ungraciously ditched Alec, so she could go break up with two-year not-like-that boyfriend, Logan. Then, she peaked with a grand finale of breaking into the most popular building in Post-Pulse Washington, second only to the Needle in its fame. There she was within spitting distance of White, a man who, if he had known of her presence, would have torn through no less than eight inches of concrete with his bare hands just to get to her, stole legal documents that could compromise the entire security of TC and lead to the annihilation of all transgenics, and then ended that psychotic series of events with a nice brawl with an Irish Familiar named Donny.

Needless to say, when she arrived back at Crash and found Alec sitting there, she wasn't surprised to find him in a less than pleasant mood.

LATE EVENING, THE NIGHT BEFORE

Max was glad that the cut to her neck hadn't been very deep at all. When she arrived back at the clothing department where she had stolen the outfit and stashed her regular clothes, the bleeding had stopped. The outfit she had…borrowed was ruined, but her clothes wouldn't be covered in blood. The first plus of the day. She changed, ignoring the annoying voice in her head that sounded very much like a certain cyber-journalist she knew telling her to pay for the outfit.

If she had just been paying with her money, she grudgingly admitted that she would have covered the outfit. But since they had holed up in TC, Max's thoughts had changed. Any spare dollar was used to pay off truck drivers and get supplies. She didn't really consider money she stumbled across as hers. It was TC's money. She wasn't the only one to think that way. A lot of transgenics had come forward bringing their secret stash of cash with them to pool into the TC Trust, as Alec had dubbed it. It had been overwhelming, knowing that they trusted them with their money.

Max had been forced to look for a Treasurer. It had been hard. People had come in, offering their great numerical skills, but Max had declined every offer with a polite smile. She could probably trust each and every one of them with her life without batting an eyelash, but she couldn't in good conscious put someone in charge of all of TC's money without knowing them and being able to personally vouch for said person.

Shockingly enough, Alec, moocher and sweet-talking salesman, was the first person she thought would handle the job well. But since Alec was already her SIC, she feared that TC would complain about too much power into such a select few people. Instead, she approached Alec and together they agreed to give the title to Luke, who eagerly accepted.

As she was still remembering the look on Luke's face as Alec told him of the position, she entered Crash. She met eyes with Lamar, who was wiping down the time-worn counter. He gave a brief glance to the very end of the bar.

She followed his glance…and noticed a…not too happy Alec. He sat hunched over, his shoulders tense looking very much like an intimidating gargoyle that had just been crapped on by a bird.

Oh boy…now or never. She tried to put on an air of confidence as she approached him, but it was hard. The closer she got, the more little details she noticed; like his iron grip on a scotch, white knuckles, and his extremely jutted jaw. He looked a lot like the predator he was made to be, but all Max could imagine herself as being was the prey; no matter the fact that they were genetically on the same level.

She silently stopped behind him about three feet back; she wasn't scared, no…she stopped because her instincts were screaming at her to respect the rules of territory.

Alec sensed her somehow because he slowly put his drink down and turned around to face her.

Max didn't believe she had ever fully appreciated the saying, if looks could kill…

"How nice of you to show up. Want to hear a story," Alec stated.

The way he said it made it sound like a threat. "Uh. Well, actually-"

"Good." he said curtly, warning her to shut up. "I know this person who just got shot. You'd think they'd be smart enough to stay somewhere safe, but this particular person thinks they're invincible. So, they are permitted to come out to enemy territory under strict circumstances, 1. Stay with Alec. 2. At all times. 3. NO EXCEPTIONS." He glared at her.

"But ya see-it's the funniest thing-" she tried, but was cut off again.

"So you think it's a joke; leaving me notes on a napkin and messages with the bartender? Cuz I don't."

Alec rarely ever got mad, especially over something little like this, but she figured he deserved the right to vent his anger out…god only knew she did it to him enough. And when she reached up to rub the back of her neck, unconsciously brushing the new cut, she had to amend that he had every right to be upset. He had trusted her, and she had almost had _another _run-in with White.

She was amazed at how much a little bit of guilt could do when expanding the toleration of how much yelling she could take from Alec. He had never been this mad at her before. She felt like a little kid, almost wanting to hang her head in shame. The embarrassment caused her mood to sour and when she felt her patience wearing thin she interrupted him, "I had to go talk to Logan." Before he could say anything, she pulled out the folders. With a half smirk she added, "Mission accomplished."

Alec was quiet for a moment. "I still don't see why you had to leave-"

"Alec," she warned. "I'm not helpless. I needed to say something to Logan in private. You would have never let me leave if I had told you, so I left you a not instead. By the time I got back, but you weren't here. Left without you," Max said with a shrug of the shoulders.

Alec let out a derisive snort, his patience even worse off than Max's. "That's rich. You risked capture and exposure, so you could go get your two minutes of ogle eyes in with your not-so-resident computer whiz."

"Why are you like this? I had to tell him something in private. You ever heard of that, privacy? And it wasn't some stupid fluff affair because we aren't-"

"Like that?" Alec guessed with a glare. "Right."

Max glared at him for about two seconds, before she let out a world-weary sigh. "Listen…can you yell at me when we get home; I think you're right…I feel a little weak," she said quickly, trying to end the interrogation.

Alec's eyes scanned her face. She didn't even have to fake exhaustion. She really was too tired to argue with him right now and the only thing she had to do to convince Alec she was telling the truth was to let her mask down. And when said like that, it sounded so easy, but every Manticorian would tell you the same thing. They were naked without their mask.

Logan would never have understood the sentiment of showing how weak she was feeling, but Alec did. It was probably why he didn't put up any argument. He just clenched his jaws tightly, put some bills on the counter, grabbed his coat, and walked closely behind her with a hand around her upper arm.

Max wasn't sure if it was because he was scared of her taking off again, or because she had given him a little more than she planned when she flashed him her fatigue, and he feared she would fall over at any time.

She wasn't sure, but she didn't have it in her to put up a fight. If their roles had been reversed she would have been through the roof. Of course Alec was much more prone to getting into difficult situations than she was…well, he was more prone to getting into situations where he needed a helping hand to get out of them. Just thinking of all the half-cocked schemes Alec had been up to made her tired.

A yawn escaped her lips, followed quickly by the tiniest of smiles when she felt Alec's arm move from gripping her arm to wrapping around her waist in a more supportive position.

Well, that answered one question.

**PRESENT TIME **

She shut the window as quietly as she could, and strolled into the kitchen to make some coffee. Max was amazed to find that she was in a good mood. She didn't even realize she was. It was one of those things where it snuck up on you, and then slammed you full-force like a Mack truck.

Actually, it was Alec who pointed it out when he quietly strolled in from the guest bedroom, "Uh…Maxie, why are you humming?"

She turned around to face him. He blinked a few times, and then rubbed his eyes, a small frown marring his brows, as if he didn't quite believe what he was seeing, "You're smiling too."

She decided not to answer, and instead held up the pot, "Coffee?"

He groaned, "God, yes," and plopped down on one of the kitchen stools. Max grinned at him then turned to fix it up for him. She was going to ask how he liked his, but stopped. Was it just yesterday that he had fixed her coffee perfectly without even asking her? Lots of cream and milk, no sugar; must be a feline thing.

Max shook her head. She didn't think that even OC knew how she liked her coffee.

She immediately felt guilty. Alec's right. I don't know the first thing about him. She decided to take a gamble and leave it black. Most guys like it black, right?

She turned around with the coffees, a slight frown on her face. When she looked at Alec her smile returned. He had his forehead on the counter and his hair was all mussed up, going in every direction.

It was really cute. Max placed the coffees down quietly, took out the cell phone Alec had given her, and snapped a picture. She may not know everything about Alec, but she was now positive that he was _not _a morning person.

"Hey Alec," she called in a sing song voice. Max couldn't stifle her laugh.

When he had lifted his head up, she snapped another picture.

His eyes immediately became focused on her phone, and he growled. Max quickly put it away before he tried to snatch it.

She fiddled with the cup in her hands, looking down into the dark liquid as her thoughts run over how stupid she had acted yesterday, going out on her own like that. Alec seemed to notice her silence. He turned his head to her.

She took a deep breath. "I uh, I came up with a middle name for you."

A small smile lit his lips. "Oh really," he turned to face her fully and spread his arms wide in his best hit-me-with-your-best-shot pose. "Give it to me, Maxie."

Max frowned and looked down. "Benjamin," she said quietly.

The playful smile that had been dancing on Alec's lips quickly vanished, his face becoming unreadable. "I thought you said I didn't remind you of him."

Max couldn't read anything from his voice and his face was blank. It was scary and she suddenly had the feeling that this might have been a mistake. Who wanted a namesake from their serial killer psycho twin?

She looked back down into the black liquid in her hands. "You don't, at least, not entirely. If you're worried about going crazy, don't. You won't. Ben just had a hard time adjusting. But you…you're like a chameleon. You can fit into any mold and even flourish."

Alec still didn't say anything.

"But you do remind me of him," she continued carefully. "You remind me of the person who was back at Manticore. The one who was always playful and telling stories, the one who would take backstage on credit even when he had done something great, the one who was always making everyone laugh. You remind me of the good person Ben used to be, and I want his good memories to live through you, even if it is just through a middle name that no one but us has to know about."

Alec was quiet for only a second more, before he met her eyes and gave her a small nod.

Max let out a huge sigh of relief. He understood how much she meant by the gesture.

"That's as close to an apology as I'm going to get for your running off yesterday, isn't it?" Alec asked with a wry tilt of his lips.

Max scoffed at him, and then pulled her phone out. She looked at the picture where Alec had been looking up at the camera when she took it. "Alec Benjamin McDowell," she said slowly. She smiled big and flashed him the picture.

His grouchy glare came back. She looked at the phone a moment longer and then put it away.

Holding her breath she pushed the coffee towards him. He kept his glare on her while he took a gulp and swallowed. Max let out her breath in a sigh of relief when he didn't make a face or spit it out.

Only when she was sure he was satisfied with his coffee did she allow herself to drink hers.

Alec took another drink and stared at the coffee, expression unreadable. Max froze.

Alec brought the mug to his lips and took a small, tentative sip. Then another bigger one, then a gulp, and a bigger gulp, until he was suddenly out of coffee.

He looked at Max, and noticed her watching him with a frown on her face.

His eyes were big with amazement when he said, "That's the best coffee I've ever had. What is it?"

Max's mouth curled up into an impish grin and she looked somewhat guilty, "It's French Roast Swirl."

Alec nodded, and then wondered what she needed to be guilty for. He frowned, then asked suspiciously, "Where'd you get it?"

Max grinned. She picked up her coffee, walked around the bar, and leaned in to Alec's ear.

"It's a secret." She then sauntered off, coffee in hand, to her bedroom to get dressed for the day.

Alec sat there, frozen to the spot. He shook his head to clear it and grinned.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

"Okay guys, what's the 411?" Max asked as she breezed into Head Quarters.

Dix cleared his throat, "Luke and I managed to salvage some of the old equipment we found in a store room. We now have a stable connection to the live stream if we ever needed it."

Luke, who was hunched over what looked like the guts of a computer, looked up and added, "We made a total of three computers for HQ. Right now I'm working on a surveillance system we can install to keep an eye over TC."

Max nodded, "How long will it take?"

Luke looked back at the mess of wires he was surrounded in, "A week?"

Max grinned proudly at them, "Will this surveillance cover all of TC?"

Dix shook his head, "Right now we only have enough to cover half of the perimeter, but if we had more old computers…"

Max nodded, "I'll send someone out to scour the area…do you think you guys could come up with a way to send messages through all of TC? We need a way to reach everyone in case of an emergency."

Luke and Dix grinned at each other, before Mole walked in and answered, "Sweetheart, you give them a can opener, and they could make you a DVD player."

Max smirked, "Better not-I'd never get to talk to Alec again. He has a crazy obsession with his 'boob tube'."

"Do not!" Alec yelled defensively when he joined them. His hair was dripping wet, and he was still buttoning his shirt.

Max turned to him, "'Bout time you showed up."

Alec glared at her as he kept buttoning his shirt, "_Somebody _took all the hot water. I waited ten minutes before I finally gave up and just took a cold one."

Then he mumbled under his breath, "Shoulda stayed at Manticore…_they _always had hot water."

Smiling, she turned to Mole, "Update?"

"Gathered up some sentries. We now have a secure perimeter, ma'am," he said sarcastically.

She narrowed her eyes at him, "Good job Mollie," she stood on her tiptoes and patted him on the head.

Mole glared at her. Luke and Dix chuckled quietly while Alec full-out guffawed, "Mollie, oh, that's a good one Maxie," he said, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Keep out of it Princess," Mole barked.

"And don't call me Maxie!" Max added for good measure. She turned to Mole, "We need some people to guard the tunnels too. We'll be making a lot of supply runs, and we don't need any Familiars slipping through," at his nod she continued, "How many shifts do you have?"

"Three. They switch every eight hours."

Max nodded, "If possible, I want six."

Mole looked skeptic, "Won't that give intruders a chance to get in with all that switching?"

Max agreed, "Yes, but it also means that our guards will be very attentive, so when they do switch they won't be distracted."

"Whatever you say, ma'a- I mean, Max." Max smiled, glad he stopped himself.

"Alright Alec, let's gather up some people to help scout around for some usable equipment."

An X5 spoke up, "We still need food though."

Max turned to him, "Who are you?"

He stood up straight and snapped a solute, "X5-29-"

"Not your designation, your name."

"Timothy, ma'am."

Max sighed impatiently, "Okay Timothy, what are you talking about?"

Alec spoke up, "Uh, I told him to take stock on everything we have and keep a list on what we need."

"Alright, Tim, organize a group of X5's to go on a supply run. When Alec and I return we'll head on out." Max turned and headed out with Alec on her heels.

"Ma'am, yes ma'am."

"And don't call me ma'am!"

00000000000000000000000

"Will these work?" a voice asked from behind a mess of wires and metal.

Luke and Dix inspected it, "Uh, yeah."

"Good," it huffed out, and dropped the rather large load on the desk.

"Oh, hey Max," they said when they recognized her. She was panting a little, while she rubbed circulation back into her arms.

"Alec should be on his way with the rest," she said in between breaths. Just then Alec walked into the room with a snack-sized bag of potato chips.

They all looked at him.

"What?" he asked defensively.

Max looked ready to explode, "Where's the rest of the computers Alec?"

Before he could answer a long file of kids started streaming in, each carrying a small part of Alec's load.

The X6's stopped and looked at Alec for instructions, "Just make a pile on the floor…and be gentle!" he added as an afterthought.

Max watched as they all very carefully made a pile.

When they were all done, Alec dismissed them with a simple 'good job' while popping a potato chip into his mouth.

He grinned at Max's incredulous look, "Don't you just love those X6's?"

Max just continued to stare at him, slowly building in anger, "Alec, those kids are not-"

She broke off when she heard chuckling. She turned to Luke and Dix. They tried to stop - they really did, but in the end gave up and just kept on laughing.

Frustrated, Max threw up her hands and stalked out of the room yelling for Alec to follow her.

Alec threw Luke and Dix a roguish grin before he turned and left the room calling for Max to slow down a bit.

When Luke and Dix were sure Max was far enough away, they looked at each other and burst out laughing before getting back to work.

000000000000000000000

It was dark by the time they had gathered for their first supply run ever. They had been discussing these plans since about ten o'clock. They had gone through every possible scenario and made sure that their escape plans had escape plans.

Max was really glad that she had named Alec as her SIC. She had never really seen him in his element, well, his army element before. He was a really good strategist, which was great because Max really lacked in that area. She was a procrastinator which ran hand in hand with a more plan-as-you-go style. If Alec hadn't stepped up to the plate, she was positive that there would have been no real plan.

She was confident in the plan, if the plan wasn't confident in her. There was something bugging her.

"Alright guys," Alec clapped his hands together, "We have exactly 3 hours. You know the plan. Let's get moving. We meet at the tunnel entrance in three minutes. Oh, and make sure that whatever you're wearing covers your barcode."

They all scattered out, leaving Max and Alec behind.

Alec watched her intently, trying to read her thoughts.

Finally she looked up and caught his stare, "You think it'll work?"

"It's the best we can do."

She looked down, not satisfied with his answer.

"Max, what's buggin' you?"

She bit her lip and continued to study the table, "How did they know that Biggs was transgenic?"

"They saw his barcode," he answered without hesitation, and then seemed to think on it a little bit more. "Where did that question come from?"

I don't know where it came from. It's been kind of nagging at me since it happened, but for some reason it just popped into my head again." She was quiet a moment, deep in thought. "Saw his barcode," she mumbled quietly to herself. She nodded slowly, at his answer, but didn't look convinced.

Alec frowned, "What else could it be?"

Max stayed quiet for a long time before saying, "I don't know, but I have a weird feeling about tonight…it's just like…"

"Like what Max?" he prodded softly.

When she met his eyes, her stare was intense, "It's the same feeling I had before White stormed JamPony."

"Okay, according to this schedule it ought to be showing its face any time now."

Just as Dix said that, Max spotted it.

"I see it now, thanks."

"No problem Max." She closed her cell phone and turned on her motorcycle, keeping the light off, so as to keep her position hidden. She watched it come down the road towards her, shifting and grinding gears through all the turns. Finally, it was almost on her.

She downshifted out of neutral and into first, keeping the clutch held tight. As soon as it passed her she let go of the clutch and gave it gas, pulling out of the trees and onto the road right behind the semi.

She relaxed a little bit, relieved that it hadn't strayed off course, or else she never would have found it. Now, though, was the hard part. The only part she couldn't control completely. She had to take over the truck, and how smooth it went all depended on the reactions of the driver.

Max saw the spot coming up quicker than she thought and cursed. She had to hurry.

She shifted up into 3rd and sped up until she was even with his rear tires. She steered the bike with one hand while the other unzipped her leather jacket and pulled out a knife. She looked at the tires again, and prayed to God that she had fast enough reflexes, or she was going to lose a hand.

With one last glance at the road, she plunged the knife deep into the tire. A loud bang was heard as the tire blew out. She pulled her hand away, but the knife came around too quickly and cut her. The semi started to sway and careen.

Max cursed when she looked over and saw the rear end of the semi rapidly swerving towards her. She pulled on the brakes, stopping so suddenly that her back tire lifted off the ground. It was like slow motion as it swerved by missing her baby by a scant inch.

She was breathing hard as she watched the truck finally come to a stop.

The truck driver got out cursing loudly and went to inspect his tire.

Max glanced over and watched the big X5, named Rex, stalk out of his spot in the trees. He pulled out a gun and aimed at the driver.

His deep voice rang out in the silent night, "Don't move."

The truck driver froze, before slowly turning around to face Rex.

Max parked her baby and walked up behind the truck driver unnoticed.

"W-what do you want?"

Rex grinned, "Your truck."

"What!" he cried indignantly, "You can't have my truck!"

Rex cocked his gun, silencing the truck driver's protest. Rex glanced at Max, and she nodded. The truck driver noticed and turned around. When he noticed Max, he jumped. Max smirked, but quickly wiped it off her face. Rex went to get the spare from the semi and fix the flat while Max dealt with the semi driver.

"Well Bob," she said, reading his nametag, "I think this ought to cover it."

Max handed him a wad of money. He looked at it, a little dumbfounded. Max let out a sigh, grabbed his hand, and placed the money into it. He stared at it. Max rolled her eyes and walked over to help Rex with the tire.

"I have a jack under the seat."

Max and Rex jerked their heads around to face Bob, surprised. Max and Rex shared a look, but eventually Max shrugged her shoulders and went to get it.

She had been on the outside longer than most transgenics and not much they did could surprise her anymore.

An awkward silence fell over them as Bob helped them to steal his truck.

When it was all done Bob finally spoke up, "I don't get it, why do you want to steal my truck? There are no drugs or anything; it's just full of food."

Max grinned, "Exactly."

Bob frowned even more confused. Max continued, "There's a town about a mile that way where you can stop. Do you have a cell phone?"

Still quiet, he told her his number which she memorized. "When we're done with your truck someone will call and tell you where you can pick-"

"Wait, I get it," Bob said suddenly, interrupting Max, "…are you guys some of those transgenies, or something like that?"

Rex gave him a look, "Something like that."

Rex climbed into the cab of the semi while Max mounted her baby. Both engines roared to life at the same time.

Max put on her sunglasses to hide her face, "Thanks a lot Bob."

She shifted into first and roared off following Rex. She breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe she was wrong about her feeling, maybe they wouldn't run into any trouble at all. She mentally shrugged her shoulders. Whatever.

When they pulled inside the building Max knew something was wrong. She easily spotted Matt and Charlotte's groups, but Alec's group wasn't here.

A group of X6's came up and started to unload the semi and take it through the tunnel.

Max walked up to Jessica, the woman in charge of the X6s.

"Has Alec's group already been here?"

She looked at Max, "No, maybe his group is running late."

Max frowned. Alec's group was supposed to be the first one back. He took two X6s with him. All he had to do was distract the nurse while the two kids stole the medical supplies. If the X6s got caught they would just get a slap on the wrist, no big. It was a simple thing, in and out.

Where could they be?

Max's bad feeling returned with a staggering vengeance. She felt a little sick to her stomach at the thought of anything bad happening to Alec and those two kids.

Max parked her bike in a corner of the warehouse and walked to the entrance of the tunnel.

Whatever was happening, she was going to find out.

She came out of the tunnels in the closest building to HQ as she could get. It was almost morning again, the skies glowing a bright purple, indicating a brilliant sunrise enough to rival the one that had occurred this morning…or yesterday morning.

She looked up at the sky briefly.

_I don't know why, but all night something had been warning me about something going wrong tonight. I should have known it was going to involve Alec. He has bad luck that follows him like a black cloud. Alec McDowell, indeed. Weren't the Irish supposed to be lucky? _

Max let a small smile cross her face as she recalled his full name. Alec Benjamin McDowell. She looked back up at the sky.

_I could count on one hand the number of times there was a sunrise in a year. The fact that there had been two in a row was odd, but comforting. I was realistic. All my life I had to take the good with the bad. Why should it be any different now that we were almost free? This sunrise was almost like a reminder. It could be cloudy for a long time, but it couldn't be cloudy forever. You just had to deal with the weather, wait it out, and hope for the best. This siege, our battle to freedom, Alec's absence, it didn't matter, because I was almost positive that we would find him and everything would be alright. Just like the sunrise._


	6. S03E06 Marco?

**Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel.**

Max burst through the doors of HQ with a presence so demanding that even Mole, ever the rebel, had to stop and look at her.

Her words were clipped and brief, "What happened to him?"

Mole swore loudly, quickly catching up to what was going on. He turned to face the two brainiacs.

Last night had been TC's first supply run. Dix and Luke appointed themselves as the overseers of the whole operation. It had been a bit much, hacking into feed and keeping up records for four different groups, but they had managed it without hitch. Not to say that the other end of the screen had it so well.

Luke and Dix shared a look before Dix cleared his throat and spoke up, "You might want to see for yourself. Something about the whole thing seems off."

They led her over to their junk pile computers that were showing many stilled frames of a check out area, which Max assumed was the hospital Alec was sent to raid.

Luke and Dix both sat down in front of their computers while Max stood between them.

Dix typed something in while he started talking; "Now we couldn't monitor all of you guys because of where your heists were located."

Max nodded; she was positive there wasn't any security cameras where she and Rex had picked up the supply truck. She was also pretty sure that that was the case for many of the groups that were sent out.

Dix continued, "We watched in on all the places that had video feeds-"

Luke cut in, "Or Closed Circuit Television."

Max frowned, "CCTV? Isn't that stilled pictures."

They both nodded, "Yes, so anyway, we were monitoring four different groups-including Alec's." Luke clicked a button and a picture popped up. Max leaned over Luke's shoulder to get a better look. It was Alec getting ready to enter through the front doors.

"What we don't get is where the X6's are…they never show up."

"It was part of the plan. Alec insisted on going in first to make sure it was safe," Max answered immediately.

Dix nodded and continued their little impromptu presentation with the click of a mouse, "Well, we're not sure exactly why they took him-," he said while clicking his mouse, unfolding the horrors of what occurred, while Max's face contorted into a look of terror, "-but they did, and they did it quickly and brutally.

It showed Alec being surrounded by six big burly guards with tazers in the first picture; then Alec holding his hands up and smirking in a non-threatening way while the guards held up their tazers; and then-

Max mumbled something to herself, then spoke clearer for Luke and Dix to understand, "That was Alec's signal for the kids to take off and go to ground, in case anyone was there who knew soldier signals."

Dix nodded, turned back to the screen, and hesitated before he clicked on the next picture.

Max's eyes widened in alarm.

The guards all at once seemed to converge on Alec, all shocking him.

Dix clicked; Alec was unconscious on the ground, but the guards weren't satisfied apparently because they were kicking him with their booted feet and clubbing him with their tazers. Onlookers looked confused and horrified at what was going on.

Dix sighed, then clicked again. They were dragging Alec, who was bleeding and bruised, away from the exit.

"They took him to somewhere in the hospital?" Max noted, perplexed.

Neither Dix nor Luke commented.

"You were right when you said something wasn't right; this whole thing is off – we don't even know if they took him because he was a transgenic."

Luke looked at her, "I don't know; they went out of their way to make sure he was unconscious before they took him away."

Max was thoughtful for a minute, "What's the frequency of their system? How often does it snap a shot?"

Dix typed something in, "They are-," he said dragging out the words slowly before what he was looking for popped up on the screen, "-a little less than 5 seconds apart."

"So all this happened in less than 30 seconds?" she asked incredulously.

They nodded solemnly.

Max jerked in surprise when Mole spoke up from behind her, which he noticed-of course, but he just raised (what she assumed were) his eyebrows at her.

"What?" she asked.

"I _said,_" he stressed out, clearly enjoying himself at having snuck up on TC's leader, "Was his barcode showing?"

She stared at him for a few seconds before she closed her eyes and shook her head distractedly, "No, we did ours together not even a week ago."

Mole looked like he expected that answer; he seemed confident Alec wouldn't be so careless, "Then how did they know he was a transgenic? I mean – I agree with Luke here. They acted like they were messing with a rabid animal, not some ex-con junkie on America's most wanted."

Max conceded, "Alright so we can assume that they knew they were dealing with a transgenic."

"But his barcode wasn't showing…so, how did they find out what he was in less than, what – 5 seconds?" Luke questioned for everyone.

They all grew silent.

"I don't know, but right now our Second in Command is in hostile custody and we have two MIA X6's," Max said taking action as she talked, "Mole prep a team to go on a search and rescue with me."

He nodded seriously and took off.

She watched after him for a second. He may not show it, but, under that crustaceous green shell, he really does have a soft spot for Alec.

She turned to Luke and Dix, "I want to know where Alec is. Start at the hospital, if he's not there…then search surrounding buildings, search everywhere in sector three, and if we still don't have him, search the surrounding sectors-then their surrounding sectors-then the surrounding cities…I'll search the whole state if that's what it takes. I want him back."

She realized she was now rambling hysterically, and was inches away from breaking down into sobs.

Dix sensed this because he walked up and put his hand on her shoulder.

She was surprised at how much it comforted her, but wished it was a certain someone with laughing green eyes and an undeniable smirk.

While looking into her eyes he said firmly, "We'll find him if we have to search the whole country," he smiled at her comfortingly, "Either way Max, we will get that smart-alec back."

Judge Akers was not a paranoid man by principle. He liked to keep things "fresh." He chuckled to himself as he imagined the face his teenage boy would give him if he dared to say that out loud. But here he sat, trying a group of four men, each sporting an injury of some sort. One of the men in particular, Mr. Connor O'Donnell, put him on edge. He had icy blue eyes and a particularly intense stare. Judge Akers suspected that he was the leader of the group behind the group of people gathered before him, awaiting their verdict.

It had been an awful occurrence that happened right here in the courthouse. His very own courthouse! And it had been attack a little over a day ago against his favorite lawyer who, like his self, didn't necessarily support transgenics, but strongly didn't support Special Agent in Charge Ames White.

It had conveniently occurred right after a very big, very controversial case. A case that happened to be the very first time White had ever been successfully challenged.

Mr. Godden had stayed long enough to make a very vague statement, incriminating the four men, before incidentally disappearing off the face of the earth.

Lot of damn coincidences if you were to ask the judge.

He was in a sour mood because five minutes after the trial had begun, Ames White had made a very loud statement by walking through the doors interrupting the whole proceedings, well aware by the smile on his face that there wasn't a damn thing that Judge Akers could do about it.

There was a lot he wanted to do about it.

Judge Akers liked Mr. Godden. And now Mr. Godden was gone.

He looked back down at the slip in his hand and knew that his previous thoughts had been only halfway correct. Mr. Connor O'Donnell may have been in charge of the group of men sitting before him, but there was only one person with the clearance power to get a full pardon without refute, and that man was sitting in the second row, smirking with his cold grey eyes locked on his face.

No, the judge was not a paranoid man. He merely knew, _knew, _that if he didn't start showing favoritism to Mr. Ames White, then his family would be the next to disappear.

He had an awful taste in his mouth and a wrenching feeling down to the very center of his moral bones when he announced the verdict.

"Mr. Connor O'Donnell, the judicial court of the state of Washington would like to apologize for inconveniencing you as we have done. All charges against you have been dropped. You are hereby excused from this trial."

With tired eyes, Judge Akers looked up and met the gaze of a very pleased Ames White.

Max paced back and forth through HQ.

Everyone had caught on quickly to either look like they were doing something productive or get a good chewing out from their frazzled leader.

Only ten minutes had passed since she saw the security stills from the hospital, but to Max, ten years could have passed. She could do nothing about anything until Mole came back with a team, and so far, Luke and Dix hadn't come up with anything they didn't already know – which was a big fat nothing, nada, zip, zilch.

She sighed and slowed in her vigorous pacing as she analyzed her feelings for about the hundredth time. Many transgenics looked up with hopeful eyes when they noticed her hesitation.

Max, unaware of her audience, just shook her head viciously and started pacing again. Everyone sighed and with a disappointed shake of their head, went back to their tasks.

Max just couldn't stop blaming herself. She was mad that she hadn't listened to herself when she sensed something was wrong. She was worried about Alec. She was confused as to why she cared so much; and she was frustrated for the way her feelings were making her – well, _feel._

Max sensed a slight disturbance in the atmosphere and looked up just in time to see Mole enter HQ with an air of confidence. He was smiling slightly, to which Max hoped was the bearing of good news.

He strode up to her boldly and puffed his cigar.

Max looked at him, waiting for him to speak. When he didn't say anything, she impatiently urged him on. "Well?"

He smiled and blew a cloud circle with his smoke, then spoke, "I got your team – three of them; all ready to leave immediately."

Max hardly thought that was anything to be grinning about, so she waited for him to continue. When he didn't, she prodded him further with another neatly placed, "Well?"

"I'm sure you'll find out," he said with a reptilian grin and a shrug of his shoulders.

Max growled in frustration and stalked towards Luke and Dix's room to get an update before she set out.

Mole called out to her, "By the way, the missing X6 kids showed up."

She froze and spun around to face him. He leaned casually against the wall and inspected his cigar.

"And?"

"They're on their way to HQ right now."

Max closed her eyes briefly and let out a small sigh of relief, before opening her eyes and trying to go back to her normal self, "When they arrive, I want them sent to me, immediately. I'll be with Luke and Dix."

She spun around and ran straight into Luke. Papers flew everywhere as they both fell backwards. They looked at each other from their spot on the ground for a few seconds before Luke spoke excitedly, "We got a location."

He looked around the ground briefly before he picked up a paper and handed it to her, "We got feed of him being escorted out of the hospital-"

"-was he conscious?" she interrupted.

Luke paused, "Well, no. They were carrying him. Anyway, we caught a glimpse of the license plate on the camera and managed to track it to…" he picked up another paper and handed it to her, "This place. Uh, it's an aerial view of a small holding facility in sector 5."

"It was recently worked on," he handed her another aerial view of it under construction; "It looks like they fortified it for Hannibal," he handed her a set of blueprints, "We're talking maximum security here: high pixel video feeds, reinforced steel doors, soundproof holding rooms – the works."

He leaned forward and pointed at it, "The only entrance is here, and you can only get in if you have a security card. They post guards throughout the whole building, ten feet apart, and all armed with talkies, stun guns, mace, cuffs, the whole nine yards."

Mole squatted down during Luke's rambling to look over Max's shoulder.

Max thought of something, "When did it go under construction?"

Luke scratched behind his ear while he seemed to rack his brain, "…uuhhh…little less than three months ago. Why?"

Mole looked at her, "You think this is like some sort of jail for transgenics?"

Max nodded, "They did start construction right after White revealed us to everyone."

They grew quiet, contemplating that.

Luke seemed hesitant, "Do you think its White?"

Max shook her head, "No. You were right when you said this place had it all."

"It's overkill," Mole agreed.

"Right, if it was White, or someone else who knew exactly what we are capable of, they wouldn't have wasted so much money."

"They weren't sure, so they went out of their way just to be safe," Luke guessed.

Max nodded, "Whoever's running this show, he's not a pro when it comes to trannies."

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Mole questioned.

Alec sat up, keeping the groan in that would accomplish nothing by releasing it. He swayed a little bit and put his hand down to balance himself. As soon as his hand, or more precisely – his fingertips, came into contact with the ground, it had jerked back, almost knowing it was hurt before his could even register the pain. He hissed and looked down at them. They were raw and bloody, looking as if he had dipped his fingertips in rich red tomato juice.

"Shit," he swore softly.

He had been tazered before, and he certainly wasn't the first X5 to be hit by multiple shocks at one time. Albeit, he could admit that six simultaneous Tazers were a little more electric shock than most transgenics, even, were used to, but it shouldn't have been enough electricity to blow the tips of his fingers off.

Exactly how high had those death sticks been set?

He wiggled his feet and noted his toes were in a similar state.

The real question was, could he escape in the state he was in?

He could probably get by walking on the back part of his feet. It would be very awkward and slow going, but it would be doable. It was his hands he was worried about. He could probably throw a punch all fine and dandy, but if he had to pick something up he would be stuck.

Alec stopped his thought process. "Must be getting soft," he mumbled. Soldiers everyday carried on when they needed to. He had seen one guy get shot in the thigh on a mission once. He had paused long enough to put a metal clamp on his severed femoral artery, by all means – a killing blow, and then pick his gun back up and run through a two-mile barrage of bullets and arrive by his own two feet to the pick-up point.

Alec himself had been through gruesome torture in Psy-Ops and reindoctrinaton. This should practically be a walk in the park.

Alec sat up, swaying again, but expecting the pain when his hand shot out to brace himself. With gritted teeth he heaved himself up. By the time he made it to his feet, his chest was heaving and his face was sweaty.

Piece of cake. _Right._

Black spots appeared in his vision, dancing a taunting dance that had him more worried by the second. He shook his head to clear them away, but that was a big mistake, he found, when he nearly toppled over as the dizziness doubled. Instead, he tried standing still, breathing in and out through his nose until his sight had cleared and the nausea passed.

"Come on Alec, you can do this. You can do this," he rasped. "By this time tomorrow, Max'll be lecturing you about your stupidity and you'll be trying to ignore her while you nurse a scotch." He transferred all of his weight to one foot. "You just have to make it out of here."

He lifted his free foot a shaky inch off the ground. He moved it forward, right as another wave of dizziness passed over him.

He distantly watched as the room careened and tilted precariously. His view was suddenly getting much closer to the ground.

Alec heard a resounding smack as his head bounced off the pavement floor.

He was unconscious before his body could even register the pain.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Exactly one hour later, Max stood in TC's entry way, the building they had discovered while sneaking out their Ordinary friends and where they had reconnoitered for their supply runs.

The group of them were waiting for the driver to show up before they could go.

One of the transgenic scouts had found the van while they were out on a supply run. It was perfect for many things because it was huge, plain, and only had two windows. It could be anything from a painting company's van to a gang member's illegal drug van. Heck, it could even be a portable flower shop, because as of right now, anything was possible.

Just like how evil a certain someone Max wasn't speaking to (*cough-Mole-cough*) - really was. It was almost mind-blowing.

To say she was upset would be a blatant lie. To say she was royally pissed would be an understatement. She glared at him again.

He noticed and grinned that oh so familiar evil grin again – only this time Max knew why he was grinning.

Mole had found her some volunteers alright.

When he introduced Max to the 'team' he found to help her get Alec back she was slightly suspicious. Mole had never smirked so big in his life. She had feared that he would crack his crustaceous crust of a face if it got any bigger. She flicked her eyes, which were now slightly narrowed, back to the team. She stared them down, scrutinizing for any abnormality or weakness or- _something,_ - anything that would have Mole in such a giddy mood. But she couldn't find anything. She gave a small shrug, but kept an eye on Mole, whose face had yet to change out of his smirk.

While they walked through the tunnels, Max pondered with a serious energy if Mole's face had somehow gotten stuck, like maybe he stumbled upon the mother lode of Cuban cigars and smiled so big that it cracked a permanent grin into his shell like skin – when she realized something. All the transgenics that he had gathered for her back-up team were female.

Max took another surreptitious glance at Mole to see if he was looking at her, before she turned to study the three in front of her again, but with a different eye. And she noticed that they were more than just females.

They were good looking, blonde females at that.

Her eyes had widened and she faltered in her steps, but almost immediately started walking again shaking her head furiously. Surely he wouldn't - … but how could he - …surely nobody was _that _evil.

She had looked at Mole with almost frantic eyes. He met her gaze full on with his own mischievous ones. Her look pleaded with him to contradict what she thought was true, but she realized when his smirk grew bigger that she was right on the money.

Horrified, she turned her head to look at the blondes that were walking in front of them. As if on cue, they took that exact moment to spontaneously start gushing about Alec. Giggles and heart-wrenched sighs had echoed off the tunnel walls, reverberating through Max's head until she felt sick.

Max shuddered as she remembered it. The three blondes had talked about Alec the whole walk; it was a fifteen minute walk of: Alec this, Alec that, and (the one that annoyed Max most) Alec is just… (Insert dreamy sigh here).

It was pure torture.

Now, they all stood around in a loose semi-circle, checking out the interior of the van that was supposedly going to get them through three sector points and back.

Max would be hard pressed if the thing made it out the garage door.

The front looked pretty normal, so anybody walking by wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary. The thing had a sort of beat up look to it, with a few rusting spots and dents. Max had been scowling at it until she had rounded around to the rear of the hunk of junk and got her first good look of the inside. The outside of the van gave off a clunker air, but the back…the back was just-

"Whoa," one of the blonde transgenics uttered in naked awe when she, too, got a peek of the interior.

A guy walked in from one of the four side rooms and smiled at their expressions, "You like?"

Max turned to him. He was the same height as Alec, though lankier in build. His complexion was pale, giving him a sallow appearance, but he had the prettiest brown eyes Max had ever seen. His dark brown hair was almost a mushroom cut, except it looked good on him because his hair was so silky that it could only be described as angel hair, with its soft but brilliant shine. He wore dark colored jeans with a white shirt. Over his white shirt he had on a long sleeved maroon shirt that he left unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled up. He looked so comfortable that Max couldn't picture him looking any other way – with one glance she knew that outfit was his 'style', nothing else would suit him.

Max noticed he had the keys in his hand.

He turned his attention back to the vehicle. When he spoke it was proud, "Fixed her up myself. Madeline is loaded down with-"

"Excuse me," one of the blondes interrupted, "but did you say 'Madeline,' while referencing your car?"

He looked defensive, "Yeah, so?"

The blondes giggled collectively, obviously thinking he was some sort of nerd. Max rolled her eyes at them. Obviously they just didn't appreciate the connection someone makes when they just find their wheels. The connection was sacred. Max shot them a withering glare as she spoke to the guy, "Continue."

The guy also glared at the blondes, but started speaking again, "She has reinforced steel walls, bullet proof windows, four-speed transmission, and _my _favorite…" he walked to the front and pushed a button. Music blasted around the garage vibrating deep in their chests, "…a suh-weet sound system."

Max gave him a look. "All that and you couldn't afford a paint job?"

"And what would be the point of a paint job when it would just make her stand out in the run-down streets of a Post-Pulse world?" he pointed out.

Max conceded with a nod. "Okay, I get that, but why do we need a sweet sound system?"

He smiled at her wickedly, "We don't. It's totally useless. Its sole purpose is for the entertaining of my transgenic ears."

Max rolled her eyes, but couldn't keep a small smile from gracing her face. When he was excited, he didn't hide it. Max found that it was hard to keep from being anything but excited too.

She realized that it wasn't just his clothes that he was comfortable in; he was totally comfortable in _him._ He obviously didn't care what anyone thought about him. It was almost like he had already discovered what kind of person he was, and accepted it. He was drumming the beat of his own drum, and if somebody didn't like it…tough shit.

Max looked at him with envy. Why couldn't she accept who she was? Why did she fight herself so much? Why couldn't she go with her own flow?

He turned his smile back to her and stuck out his hand, "I'm Maxx."

Mole gave a sarcastic chuckle at that. Neither of the Maxes acknowledged it.

She grinned and shook Maxx's hand, "Me too."

He threw his head back and laughed, "I know. Well, it's nice to finally meet you in person."

"Finally?" she questioned, "You know who I am?"

"Well, yeah, you're the notorious Max 'the great' Guevera. You led us into this siege, are the unofficial leader of TC, and were rumored to have taken down Manticore, therefore setting us all free. People call you the 'Ice Bitch' behind your back, and you were recently on TV for-"

Mole interrupted him, "Dude, we get. You have an obsession. Can we get back to the mission?"

Maxx looked at her sheepishly before continuing to the back of the van where he hopped in. He pointed things out as he talked about them, "Maddie has three computers, GPS, CB radio, and a police scanner."

He crouched down in front of a metal chest and opened it. He pulled out one mean looking sniper rifle with a 12 inch scope.

"I've worked hard on this, but I pretty much collected any man's dream arsenal. MG's, AK's, binoculars with night-vision, some heat seekers, grenades, satellite launchers –

He glanced at Mole with a smirk.

"- sawed off shotguns, gasoline for bombs, and some seriously wicked knives." He ended with a gleeful grin.

Max forgot all about how evil Mole was for a split second. Maxx was absolutely a cool person right now. She jumped into the back of the van, walked up to him, and peered in.

She was silent a moment, then, "I think I hear angels playing."

She reverently ran her hand along the side of the box, as if she were unworthy to touch the actual equipment.

Maxx grinned at her, "Maddie's taken, but feel free to play with any of these toys."

"I'm taken too," Max said, briefly imagining her motorcycle, "But this car is almost good enough to make a girl cheat." At his worried look, she smiled. "Kidding. Do you mind if I have a look around?"

He seemed indecisive for a second, but obviously believed that she was telling the truth about pulling his leg. He nodded.

At his permission she picked up a twin set of knives. She weighed them a little in her hands, sizing them up.

Out of nowhere, she twirled them once in her hands before tossing them up in the air, and then caught them deftly by the handles, in a fighter's crouch.

She straightened, not bothering to hide her smirk, "Dibs."

Max had directed that to her 'team' of blonde rescuers.

Maxx rolled his eyes at her childish possessiveness, to which she replied with an innocent "What?"

"Nothing, nothing," he clapped his hands together, "Well, as they say, let's get this show on the road."

It was Max's turn to roll her eyes. It never failed to amuse her; transgenics trying out their 'Common Verbal Usage' lines.

Maxx went through the door that opened up the front to the back of the van and situated himself behind the wheel. While he fiddled with some music, the blondes filed into the back, immediately starting talking about Alec again.

When Mole heard what they were talking about, he grinned at Max once more, "Enjoy yourself now. Bring Princess back to us in one piece."

With that he closed the doors of the van and opened the garage for them.

As Maxx pulled out, Max climbed into the passenger seat and shut the door on the three blondes in the back. She flipped Mole off as they drove out of the building.

If she only survived this ordeal as a disembodied head, and the only thing she could do was chew up all of his precious cigars, she would do it for Max Guevera was set on revenge; nothing was going to stop her.

She glanced at the radio, "This sounds familiar…what is it?"

Maxx grinned, "Renegade, by Styx. It's a classic."

Max laughed and turned it up. They rolled down the road heading from the outskirts of Seattle and into the first sector.

Maxx flashed the guards at the gate some official looking ID, "Roland's Exterminating Services," he told them in a bored fashion.

They nodded and let him through.

It worked wonderfully, and soon Max found that they were already in the fifth sector, sitting in front of the building Alec was being held in.

Maxx gave it a quick once over before turning to look at her, "Ready?"

Max nodded after a brief hesitation, "Let me round up my blonde bimbos."

Maxx chuckled a little, but it was clear that he was in mission mode now.

Max moved to the door and crawled through to the back, sending a heavenward prayer up.

God help her because she was about to enter No Man's Land with Alec's transgenic fan club.

_To be continued…_


	7. S03E07 Polo!

_Previously…_

_Max burst through the doors of HQ. "What happened to him?"_

…

"_I want to know where Alec is. Start at the hospital, if he's not there…then search surrounding buildings, search everywhere in sector three, and if we still don't have him, search the surrounding sectors-then their surrounding sectors-then the surrounding cities…I'll search the whole state if that's what it takes. I want him back."_

"_We'll find him if we have to search the whole country," Dix said firmly, "Either way Max, we will get that smart-alec back."_

…

"_You were right when you said something wasn't right; this whole thing is off – we don't even know if they took him because he was a transgenic."_

…

"_Right now our Second in Command is in hostile custody and we have two MIA X6's," Max said taking action as she talked, "Mole prep a team to go on a search and rescue with me."_

…

"_Mr. Connor O'Donnell, the judicial court of the state of Washington would like to apologize for inconveniencing you as we have done. All charges against you have been dropped. You are hereby excused from this trial."_

…

"_We got a location," Luke said, "They're keeping him in a small holding facility in sector 5. It looks like they fortified it for Hannibal," he handed Max a set of blueprints, "We're talking maximum security here: high pixel video feeds, reinforced steel doors, soundproof holding rooms – the works."_

…

_He turned his smile back to her and stuck out his hand, "I'm Maxx."_

_Max grinned and shook his hand, "Me too."_

…

_The van pulled up to a stop in the fifth sector, parking in front of the building Alec was being held in._

_Maxx gave it a quick once over from the driver's seat. "Ready?" He asked Max without turning to look at her._

_Max nodded after a brief hesitation, "Let me round up my blonde bimbos."_

…

Now…

"All I'm saying is that it doesn't seem right," Sketchy burst out as he looked deep into the depths of his beer. He was sitting at a table in Crash after a particularly long day at work.

The music was loud tonight and there was a group of young rambunctious men who were being loud over at the pool tables.

His eyes glanced up to watch them for a moment when they chorused. A younger guy in the middle of the group was coughing and sputtering all the while receiving pats on his back from the rest of the smiling group.

Sketchy, in a rare display of seriousness, rolled his eyes at the group before looking back down into his dirty cup.

"What are you goin' on about?" OC asked distractedly from the other side of the table.

"I dunno…work, Normal, you, _this," _he said, moving his arms out to indicate the whole of Crash.

OC stopped her scanning and turned to look back at him. After looking at his face, she sighed, picked up her beer, and downed it like a shot. "Obviously, you have something deep goin' on in that white fool brain o' yours, for once. And Original Cindy's gonna need somethin' a little stronger than beer to deal."

Sketchy watched as she stood and walked up to the bar tender. After watching her place her drink, his eyes moved on to scan the room once more. He took another sip of his drink while he watched the crowd. It took a while for him to pick up on what had changed in the last few seconds, but as soon as he realized that the noise level had dropped, his eyes flew over to the group of boys at the pool table. There was a guy standing in front of them holding up a paper of some sort. His back was facing Sketchy, so he couldn't make out what kind of paper it was.

Sketchy watched the faces of the boys. They seemed to be deep in thought, all traces of laughter gone. A lot of them were giving a slight negative shake of the head. Suddenly one of the boys cracked a comment, and they were all laughing again, a suggestive glint about them, nodding in agreement to whatever the comment had been about.

A loud clunk startled Sketchy out of his staring. He looked over to where OC sat across from him with her stronger drink in front of her. She took a healthy swig, wincing slightly, before she spoke with a slightly raspy voice. "Okay, OC's ready for whateva bitch you feel like throwin' out there, so just drop ya load. Spit it out so you can go back to bein' your normal white-ass fool self."

Sketchy had long ago learned to ignore her bristly personality, just as he had long ago learned to accept all of Max's disappearances. At least, now he knew why Max had disappeared all the time, but it was getting harder and harder to ignore OC's constant barbs. "You know, what is your problem?"

OC froze, her glass halfway to her mouth.

Sketchy continued. "Why are you always raggin' on me? I…I mean, I know that I may not be the smartest person at times…or most of the time, but don't you think that I deserve better than all the names you're always calling me? I'm not completely stupid. Even Max and Alec trust me enough now. So what's your deal?"

OC stared at him for a long time. After a little bit her face softened. "What's really got you buggin' out, boo?"

There was a silence. Finally, Sketchy unloaded. "How can everybody just act like everything is okay?" He waved his arms around Crash. "Look at these people. They don't even care that there is a siege going on right in the middle of their city, and that countless of people's lives are at risk. They don't even care that any day, the troops could decide to storm TC and terminate everyone there. And Normal, he just goes on running JamPony like it was nothing, hollering his '_bip, bip, bips,' _at everyone." Sketchy swung his arm around to point at a startled OC. "And you. You haven't even mentioned Max one time since we were kicked out of TC."

Too fast to dodge, OC had stood up and finally given someone her infamous bitch-slap. Sketchy's rant was cut off immediately. He sat in shock for a minute, before he brought his hand up to his stinging cheek.

"Trouble in paradise?" asked a man with a Scottish accent.

Sketchy moved his glare off of OC, and turned it to the guy who had come to stand next to their table without either of them noticing. It was the same guy who had been talking to the group of boys.

"What's it to you?" OC demanded.

The guy's bright blue eyes held something dark for a moment, before it was gone as he held up his hands in a defensive gesture, a disarming smile upon his face. "Just being polite. I actually came to ask you a question."

"Yeah, well ask it already," Sketchy said, his glare back on OC.

"Have either of you seen this woman?"

Since Sketchy had been watching OC's face so closely he was able to pick up the way her eyes just barely widened. If he hadn't been glaring at her, he probably would have thought it was a twitch. With great trepidation, Sketchy turned his attention to the paper the guy was now holding up. Sketchy's stomach dropped. It wasn't actually a paper. It was a picture.

…of Max.

It was dark outside, and Max was just a shadow as she crouched in the bushes outside the building where they were holding Alec.

They had been right. Whoever was running this place had armed his men down to the nines. It was overkill. And an overly pain in the ass to Max.

Max timed the guard in her head. So far they have figured out that they rotate in five minute shifts. Meaning, if they wanted to do this quietly and get in and out before anyone could realize this they had to do it in under five minutes or else the next guard would come upon his unconscious buddy, and probably notify the rest of the loaded down buddies with tazers.

Piece of cake…_right. _

There was a slight static noise as her microphone went off in her ear.

Max sighed in frustration, pushing down on the button, "Come again?"

Maxx voice came in louder this time, "_I _said_," _his voice came through, sounding miffed, "_That the blonde trio confirms. Guard shifts are five minutes apart. Does alpha kitten want to regroup and strategize?"_

Max rolled her eyes at his nicknames, "No, we'll stick to the plan. Who's closest to my location?"

There was a pause while Maxx heard some things being typed, _"Blonde the 2__nd__ is about thirty feet from your location and closing."_

Max sighed, "They have names you know."

She stubbornly looked over the fact that that was exactly how she referred to him.

"_Aw Max, you're no fun. Alright, Kayla is heading your way. She should be intercept you in…5….4….3…2…1."_

Max looked around.

…

"_Is she there yet?"_ Maxx asked excitedly.

Max rolled her eyes, getting ready to tell him 'no', when lo and behold, somebody jumped down in front of her.

Max let out a startled yelp, breathing quickly.

"_Max? Come in Max. Do you copy…WHAT'S going on!"_

Max pulled the ear bud out of her ear. She could still hear Maxx yelling, but she was too busy glaring at _Kayla _to answer him. She wasn't going to say anything, but the smirk on the girl's face mixed with the fact that she was crazy about Alec, was just forcing Max to show her alpha status and demand respect.

"_That _was unnecessary, _soldier. _We're on a covert mission here. Pull yourself together!" she commanded, surprising herself at how much she sounded like Lydecker. Max, nonetheless, was pleased when the female stood erect, her feet coming together with a clunk.

Max's lips twitched at the corners, "At ease."

It was Kayla's turn to send a small scowl Max's way.

Max slowly put the ear phone back in, wincing at how hysterically loud Maxx was.

"Everything's under control, calm down," Max cooed teasingly.

She heard his jaws audibly snap shut, before he let out a frustrated sigh. She shook with silent laughter.

When she could talk without Maxx knowing she was laughing at his expense, she said, "As soon as this guard switches off, Kayla and I will make our move. Who's going to get here next?"

"_Reese," _was Maxx's short response.

Max ignored his pouty tone. "Keep her at the door on guard. When Mika gets there send one of them in after us as our wing man to clean up any messes we left behind."

"_Max, the next guard will be there in about twenty seconds."_

Max passed that along to Kayla before speaking to Maxx again, "Start timing us on my mark."

Kayla edged away coming closer to the guard.

When she was far enough away Max called out, "Oh and Maxx?"

"_Ya?"_ came the curt reply. It was obvious he was still upset.

"You were all wrong. Kayla is Blonde Number Three. Mika is the 2nd," with that Max pushed a button and cut him off.

She didn't know it, but back in the van Maxx's face broke into a small smile despite his slightly sour mood.

As soon as the other guard was out of sight Max nodded at Kayla, while she walked up and took care of the guard with some strategically placed blows, Max told Maxx to start the clock.

Kayla dragged him into the bushes as Max made quick work of the lock.

Kayla frowned, "You could've used his keys."

"Needed the practice," Max replied with a shrug, "Okay Maxx, we're in."

"_Alright, you have 4minutes, 45 seconds," _said Maxx's voice through the ear bud intercom._ " The holding cells are to your left and down the second hall on the right. Your guess is as good as mine on which cell they have him in."_

"Copy," she mumbled, leading the way. The cameras were a joke. They moved in slow semi-circles. All they had to do wait for them to turn the other way then walk underneath them…and wait for them to turn back where you came from.

They were easy to avoid, but a pain in the ass. They took too much time.

They ran into their first guard. Max karate chopped him in the neck while Kayla got behind to catch him. She laid him down carefully and grabbed his gun and walkie talkie. She offered the gun to Max, since she already had one from the first guard, but Max declined. Kayla shrugged and took batteries out of the talkie, in case he woke up, that and she needed some AA's. Batteries were a rare find in TC, or anywhere. These people were loaded with excellent sources. She tossed the useless talkie on him as Max kicked him to make sure he was out.

All that done out of the range of the video cameras was a challenge, but Max found they worked fluidly together.

They made eye contact and nodded. As one they continued on. When they came to the first hall, they quickly took care of the next guard in the same fashion.

"_I sent Mika in; Reese is on guard at the door. You have 3 minutes, 30 seconds."_

"Lovely," Max murmured sarcastically as they put out another guard, not even ten feet from the last one.

"This place is _crawling _with guards," Kayla whispered fiercely, "Do you think we've been made?"

They crept along the hall, knees slightly bent, ready for anything.

"No, they're just really…thorough, here," Max supplied, not bothering to fill her in as to why it was.

They finally made it to the second hall.

As they turned the corner, Max's ear bud rang out.

"_Guards!" _

Instinctively, Max dropped into a roll, a tazer going off mere inches above her head. Kayla grabbed the tazer and pulled, making the guard stumble forward where Max had stopped. As he went past her, Max swiped her foot out in an arc, tripping him. He fell to the ground where Kayla put him out with a swift kick to the head.

"_Max, behind you!"_

This time, Max was ready. She coiled down and burst up and back with amazing force, throwing her fists out and punching both guards while she furled up, turning her jump into a back-flip, and landing behind them lightly on her feet before they could finish falling unconscious to the ground.

"Max?" a voice whispered fiercely, "Is that you?"

She spun around and in a normal voice called out, "Alec? Where are you?"

"A beach in Tahiti. For god's sake Max, where do you think I'm at?"

"I know you're in a cell smart-ass," she said in frustration, "_Which _one."

"_Max, 2 minutes and counting."_

Maxx!

"Hey Maxx, how did you know where those guards were?"

Alec snorted derisively and mumbled, "Wow Maxie, you really went off the deep end now. Talking to yourself in the third like Cindy, eh?"

"Shut. Up. Alec," she growled out, "_Maxx _is an X5 who's sitting in our getaway car outside."

"_I had Mika tap into their security lines. I can see you right now, and anything that their cameras will get. –Max, stop scowling like that, it causes wrinkles."_

Max could just hear the laughter in his voice. She scowled deeper.

"Yo, Max," Max turned to Kayla and caught the keys she sent her way.

She turned back around and looked down the hall, "Whatever, could you just tell me which one he's in?"

"_What's the magic word?" _he asked in a sing-song voice.

"NOW!"

"_Tsk tsk, no fun at all Max. Third door on the left."_

Max stalked up to the cell Alec was at.

As if on cue, Alec and Maxx both commented, "How lady-like."

Which startled her enough to pause, until Maxx noticed and chimed, "_One minute."_

Max quickly unlocked his door and pulled it open, "God this thing weighs a ton. You'd think they thought we were big hairy beasts."

She looked at Alec, "Oh, now I understand," to which Alec growled at.

"Just give me a hand." Kayla and Max came over, each grabbing an arm and slinging it across their shoulders. Together they started their three man hobble.

"_Don't worry about the cameras. I put theirs on a loop. You guys just worry about getting, uh, the hell outta dodge."_

Max chuckled under her breath: transgenics and slang.

"So ladies," Alec said in a scratchy, pained voice, "You come here often?"

Kayla laughed while Max rolled her eyes. Even in pain Alec was still a stud.

They passed another guard, "Whoa, someone had fun," Alec commented with envy, his head turning as he kept an eye on the unconscious guard. Max smirked. She was sure Alec wanted to beat up his captures, but since he couldn't, she knew he was absolutely squirming in frustration on the inside.

"_Thirty seconds. And you're about to come across a guard. A _conscious _guard."_

Shit.

Max motioned for them to still and be quiet. They propped Alec against the wall. Max and Kayla crept up to the corner, while Alec watched silently. Max placed her hand on Kayla's shoulder. She turned around and Max mouthed 'On three'.

Max waited until the guard got closer, before she started counting down. Kayla turned back to face the guard again. Max pressed her finger into her shoulder once…twice…

On the third time, they both darted out and took on the guard. They had done it so many times on the way in that it was almost like a predatory dance now, the way they moved in sync as partners.

Not a second later he was on the ground, weaponless.

Alec suddenly blurted out, "That was hot- no, even better, that was hawt."

As Kayla, giggling, put another gun into her collection Max whispered, "We have about twenty seconds."

Kayla looked at her and nodded.

Alec frowned. "What happens in twenty seconds?"

"The guards rotate." Realization dawned over his face. Meanwhile, he was completely ignorant to the girls' silent conversation behind him. Coming to a decision, they gripped the others wrist, walked forward, and scooped Alec up from behind into a makeshift basket.

The female transgenics started jogging, not even giving Alec a chance to protest.

"God Alec you weigh a ton," Max groaned. Kayla smiled.

"It's all muscle, baby," he replied in an arrogant tone.

"_Ten seconds."_

"Ten seconds," Max said to Kayla. They sped up.

Then to Maxx she said, "Pull the van up Maxx. Tell Reese to get the first aid kit ready."

"_Already there, hurry Max."_

They turned right breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Mika standing there with the door open, ushering them on. On the sidewalk was the van, already running. Reese was standing next to the back with the doors open. Maxx was rushing forward to help them.

"What are you doing? We need you to be in the driver's seat!" Max hissed at him.

Maxx just shrugged her off and threw Alec over his shoulder. The girls shook their sore arms a little before heading to the back of the van. Maxx sat him down and let Reese drag him in the rest of the way. Max and Kayla jumped into the back of the van and helped Reese take care of Alec.

Suddenly bullets started ringing out, zinging by wildly.

Mika ran up, out of breath, "The next guard is here, and he's already called for backup."

She hopped into the back.

Maxx waited until she was in to slam the doors shut.

The bullets started pinging off the side of the van. Everyone held their breath, but Maxx was true to his word, and none penetrated. They ricocheted harmlessly off the side of the van.

All the transgenics shared a nervous look when they heard the muffled curses coming from Maxx's mouth.

"Keep working on him," Max commanded. They came out of their stupor and started bandaging Alec. Max opened the door and crawled through to the front.

Maxx stumbled in front of the driver's door, his bloody fingers unable to grasp the handle. Max threw it open and helped him in as the bullets kept whizzing by leaving a hot trail where they barely missed her. She pulled him into the passenger seat. She climbed over him and shut the driver's door.

"Is he alright Max?" Kayla called from the back through the door Max had left open.

"I don't know," she answered distractedly. She glanced over at him. He was in pain, but she knew it wasn't the fatal, 'step into the light', kind of pain. She still couldn't find the gunshot wound after she had completed her once over of him.

She opened her mouth to ask, but was distracted as her side window exploded onto her.

There were startled gasps from the blondes and a frantic 'Max?' uttered from Alec.

She breathed deeply for a second, compartmentalizing the stinging pain from the numerous cuts to the back of her mind, before she slammed her foot down of the clutch and threw 'Maddie' into first gear.

All the while she cussed like a sailor until she poured her anger on Maxx, "Of all the stupid gadgets you have in here, it never once crossed your mind to install bullet proof glass?"

When she didn't get an answer, she looked over at him. His face was pinched tight, fists gripping the armrests, and he was…sitting in the oddest way.

All fury vaporized as everything fell into place.

Her lips twitched when she asked, "Where were you shot?"

Silence greeted her.

"Maxx?"

"I was shot in the ass okay!" he wiggled a little bit, trying to find a more comfortable position, before giving up with a groan.

Max bit her cheek to bleeding, but still couldn't stop the laughter that bubbled up out her, and once she started laughing – she couldn't stop, and it was partly because she had so much adrenaline still pumping through her from almost being fatally shot.

Her window was mostly gone from where it had come in, and it left in the very top corner of the windshield. Max frowned and pulled into an alley.

She stopped the van and got out, glass falling to the ground.

She dusted herself and the seat off, and then proceeded to punch the remainder of her window out. Kayla leaned her head through.

"Max, what are you doing? We need to get out of this sector before those guards send out a description of the van."

"I know, but we can't have broken glass everywhere when we pull up to the sector point. We might as well stamp 'Guilty' to our foreheads."

Maxx smiled mischievously, "Don't fret ladies. I took out their outgoing communication line. They have to beat us to the checkpoint if they want to catch us."

They smiled at him.

Max continued to get rid of the glass, "And since there's four ways out of sector five, I think we have time." She finished, proud of her work, "See, now it just looks like the window's down. How's Alec?"

"We bandaged him up the best we could. He's not too bad, I guess. He'll probably need a trip down to Med Bay when we get back though."

Max nodded. She finished up and looked at Kayla, "You're gonna have to drive now…I'm covered in cuts."

Kayla nodded. Maxx handed her the ID card that said Roland's Exterminating Services.

"Take it easy on my Madeline," he said sternly.

Max rolled her eyes heavenward and helped him to the back, "Come on, we're getting you patched up."

Kayla let them pass before she climbed into the front and started it up.

Max helped Maxx settle before she noticed Alec's stare, "Uh, Alec this is Maxx. Maxx, Alec."

Alec looked at him and grunted, before turning his attention completely to Mika and Reese, who were completely doting on him with coos and kisses.

Max bristled, but didn't stop it.

Instead she turned back to Maxx and asked, "Can you take your pants off, or do you want me to?"

Alec's head snapped back to Max so fast that it popped, while Maxx just raised an eyebrow and grinned boyishly.

Max wanted to slap herself for wording it that way, but realized that maybe, _maybe _she had subconsciously done that on purpose because of the way Alec had ignored her.

Maxx looked at her with an impish smile and said in an all too innocent voice, "I don't want to chance it, Maxie. You better do it for me."

Alec absolutely frothed at the mouth when he called her that. _Maxie? _That's my nickname!

Max frowned at him, "Don't call me that. And I think you're perfectly capable of getting your own pants off."

Maxx tsked her again, "I'm telling you. No fun at all."

Max got the first aid kit and sat beside him. He rolled over and pulled his pants down to just past the shot.

"Oh you're such a wimp. That's just a flesh wound."

"There's nothing back there, _but _flesh Max," he pointed out sweetly. "Besides, it wouldn't be very deep. I dodged all the bullets, but this one ricocheted off the van and got me."

Max whistled, "Now aren't you glad for those bullet proof walls, or else this could be _my _ass with the bullet hole." She said with a cheeky grin.

He sarcastically mimicked her in a high-pitched voice, "Or this could be _my _ass with the bullet hole."

Max and Maxx looked up when they heard laughter. Max grinned at their 'audience' and mock-bowed. Maxx scowled.

They all stopped, however, when the van stopped.

Moment of truth – they were at the first sector point.

Max quickly shut the door that separated the front and back. Everyone held their breath while they listened. It was slightly muffled, but they understood it.

"Roland's exterminating services," the guard read aloud. The van tilted as the guard leaned his weight on the window, "So you go to people's homes and offer them your…services."

There was a slight pause, before Kayla answered tightly, "Yes. I get rid of lousy _pests."_

Everyone could hear her mentally add, 'Like you.'

The guard however was unaffected.

"I've got some problems that could use your _services," _he drawled out.

Max was getting ready to march up front and rip this guy a new hole, but Maxx grabbed her arm as Alec cleared his throat and deepened his voice dramatically, "Honey, what seems to be the hold up."

It was meant as a question, but it came out as a threatening demand. If Max wasn't looking right at Alec, she would have thought that the voice came from some buff football player and not the teasing playboy that she was used to.

There was a pause before everyone heard the guard stammer out, "Uh- g-go right this way. Right ahead miss. That's right, drive straight through. Have a wonderful day ma'am."

Kayla drove through. Once they were in the clear, Kayla opened the door and glanced back at them, "That poor man was shaking so bad, I wasn't sure he was going to get the gate open."

Alec grinned, pleased with himself as he replied. "Couldn't help myself."

At that everyone laughed.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Maxx was laid sprawled out face-down on a bed in one of the back rooms of TC's garage when Max found him.

She gave a cheeky smile and walked up to him. She brought her hand down, delivering a good slap to his rear.

Maxx yelped.

Max smiled. "Get your ass patched?"

"Ha, ha, very funny. The doctor said I was very lucky the bullet hadn't ricocheted to something more vital."

Max studied the bandages on his butt with mock seriousness. "Lucky indeed. Anymore to the left and I think you would have had to start making choices while you hit the can."

Maxx gave her the glare that comment deserved. "You make fun now, but _the doctor _said it was a very serious injury and that I was very fortunate to have survived."

"Funny, the doctor I talked to told me that it was just a flesh wound and that you were being a big baby," Max said innocently.

Maxx sat up enough so that he could clutch his hand dramatically over his chest. "I've been betrayed. Alas, the woes of the heart wound me so."

Max smiled at him. "Yeah, yeah," she said, heading out into the big open garage part of the building. "You got a kitchen in this dump?" she called back.

Maxx had maneuvered himself out of bed, hobbling his way after her. When he heard her last comment he frowned at her. "This place is a mansion. I'm still working on it, but give me a few months to recover from my battle wounds and I'll be fixing this place up to rival my lovely Madeline."

Max scoffed as she walked up to a door, opening it, and looking inside. "Months your ass. Doc said you'll be good as new in a day or two."

It was a bathroom. She closed the door and headed to another.

Bingo.

There was a wall of countertop, a microwave, mini-refrigerator, sink, table, three kitchen chairs, and a couch. It looked like a staff room.

She entered with Maxx not far behind her.

"So you just came back from MedBay, right?"

"Yep," Max answered rummaging around in his mostly barren cabinets. "With strict orders to make sure you were fed properly."

Maxx opted to stay leaning against the wall, rather than endure sitting at the table. "How's Alec?"

Max grinned as she found a can of chicken noodle soup. The smile left her face as she pondered his question. "Not happy. He doesn't think that he should still be in there, but I think the doctor intimidated him a little."

Maxx nodded, "She was a little scary."

Max sat the soup down on the counter, and stared at it. "Can opener," she mumbled, and began searching through the drawers.

"So the doctor thinks that Alec's injury is more serious than it is?" Maxx hazarded.

"No," Max said distractedly. "It's as serious as she thinks it is. Alec just refuses to listen to reason. He keeps breaking out in tremors which we believe is due to the great shock that was delivered to him. Doc thinks his nervous system isn't doing so hot. She wants to keep him there for at least two days, because if the tremors last longer than that, we'll have a serious problem on our hands…do you have a can opener?"

"A can opener?" Maxx asked, thrown a little at the random question. "I don't think so…wait, yes I do. Far right drawer."

Max opened the indicated drawer. She held up some weird looking metal contraption giving it a skeptic look. "_This _is your can opener?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"It's ancient! How does it even work?"

"Very carefully. I think you put the sharp thingy through the top of the can, and then use that weird lever at the end to twist the…" he trailed off at her look. "What?"

"Seriously?"

"Can it, Guevara . It's not like you have a better one," he said grumpily.

Max turned so he wouldn't see her smile and started opening the can. When the lid was loose, she tossed it in the sink. Picking up the can of soup she walked over to the microwave.

"What are you doing?"

"Making you soup," she answered, placing the can into the microwave and hitting _start _before he could even protest.

Red, pink, and blue sparks flew. Max ducked.

"What are you doing? Take it out!" Maxx cried.

Max turned to glare at him from her crouched position. "I'm not touching that thing. You take it out."

Maxx was halfway wobbled across the room when there was a big explosion.

They both looked at the microwave, but couldn't see inside anymore as the soup had blasted to the window, blocking the view.

It took another thirty seconds for Maxx to reach the microwave and yank the cord from the wall.

He pushed the release button on the door. Smoke billowed out into his face. He turned, coughing, his eyes seeking out a certain X5.

"I thought the doctor wanted me fed, not poisoned."

"It's not my fault," Max said, defensively. She pointed at the microwave where goop was slowly running down onto the counter. The paper label on the can had caught fire and the picture was ironically accurate to the concoction that was bubbling in the can. "That that overactive _box _didn't like _Campbell's."_

Maxx sighed. "First off, metal does not go in the microwave. And secondly, the soup was too concentrated. You're supposed to add a can of water and mix it with the soup. And you always place a napkin over your food to keep the microwave clean, in case it does bubble. Honestly, how long have you been out of Manticore?"

Max was about to answer, when her phone rang. "Go for Max," she answered.

Maxx grabbed some oven mitts and a pair of tongs and set about to cleaning up the explosion.

"Hey, Cindy," Max said, her smile growing. It disappeared quickly. Maxx stopped what he was doing when he saw her face.

"Max, what is it?" She held a finger up to silence him as she listened in.

"What did he look like?" Max asked. She paused as she listened in. "Did he by chance say his name?"

Maxx tried to hear the other half of the conversation, but it was too muffled. Max kept her volume on the lowest setting to avoid eavesdroppers.

Max stiffened at what OC said, followed shortly by Maxx when he noticed. "Scottish accent?"

"No, I know who he is. Listen OC, you stay away from that guy. He's bad news. Never be alone with him. You hear me?"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

OC held the phone up to her ear and watched the man as he continued to show people pictures of Max. "Yeah, I hear ya. 'Nough about OC, you gonna be okay, boo?"

She rolled her eyes. "You transgenics always alright. Listen, you be careful boo. OC can't lose you, hell TC can't lose you. Watch your back Max."

OC turned to the bar tender as she hung up the phone. "Thanks for letting OC use ya phone."

He nodded at her as he shined a glass.

OC looked up again at the man to find his eyes staring at her intently. It sent shivers up her spine, but she ignored it.

She walked back over to the table where Sketchy had passed out. She gripped his shoulder and gave him a good shake. "Come on fool, let's get your sorry white ass home."

Sketchy mumbled something unintelligent, but nonetheless, managing to make it to his swaying feet.

OC gripped his arm tight and lead him out the door, feeling eyes burning into the back of her head the whole time.


	8. S03E08 Maximum Reconnoitering

"Hello?" OC called out. She had tried knocking, but when no one answered she tried the door. It was unlocked. "Logan?"

"Back here," she heard his voice call out.

She left the living room with all of his computer equipment. She walked to the hall. There was a light on in the last room.

"OC brought the stuff you asked for. Pretty damned whack list if you ask me. What was so urgent about macaroni?"

She stepped in the doorway, getting her first good look at Logan. He was hunched over a table full of junk. He looked up at her, a screwdriver in his mouth.

He quickly took it out so he could speak. "You found macaroni?" he asked excitedly.

OC pulled the blue box from her jacket and slammed it down on the table, making a rattling noise, unique only to uncooked pasta. "Ya, OC found it. It was damn hard, too. I had to fight off a seventy year old man with a crocodile walking stick and orange glasses," she saw Logan's glance. "Don't ask. It wasn't pretty and OC feels like her karma is screwed to high come for who knows how long. And Cindy ain't even gonna get into details about what she had to do to get the rubber bands."

Logan straightened. "There's more."

OC tossed the bag down on the table. "Damn straight, every annoying thing on that messed up list 'o yours is in that bag. OC don't know what you plan to do with all of this, but if it was important enough for you to ask, then OC figured it had somethin' to do with Max. And OC is always up for helpin' her boo."

Logan was busy looking through the bag with a critical eye.

OC looked around at the mess. "So what are you doing?"

"I'm fixing up this machine I got from a contact of mine."

"Oh, so its Eyes Only related."

Logan gave her a sharp glance. "Yes. But it will help Max in a way."

OC propped her elbows on the table. "So, what does it do?"

Logan held up the biggest piece and pointed to a hole. "When I get this thing to start working again, a small laser light will emit from here and we'll be able to send signals through Eyes Only cable hacks."

"And that's good how?"

A Grinch-like grin split Logan's face.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Someone walked past Max, bumping into her, and startling her from her reverie. The person stopped long enough to give a brief apology, never really meeting her eyes, before they were rushing on. Max wasn't sure how she ended up here, or why, for that matter. She just suddenly found herself in MedBay.

The whole place was like this. It wasn't because they had a lot of sick transgenics to take care of. Transgenics can't get most of the common flues or colds. The only time this place would see any action was if the National Guard sitting tight outside the perimeter decided to storm the place.

Or if you were prone to having bad luck and getting kidnapped.

Max's feet had carried her to Alec's room without her noticing or Alec noticing.

She stood in the doorway and watched him flirt with the X5 nurse for a moment before she cleared her throat.

Alec's eyes snapped up to her, clearly surprised.

The X5 told him to yell if he needed anything before making a hasty retreat, nodding at Max when she passed her on her way out.

"How are you doing?" Max asked when the X5 nurse was gone.

"I'm doing great," Alec said, "Doc says I can leave tomorrow. She would dispatch me today, since my tremors have stopped, but she wanted to be sure."

Max nodded. "That's great." A silence followed her statement, and she suddenly felt awkward, "Uh…can I come in?"

She thought she saw something close to anger cross his face, but it was quickly masked as he nodded.

Max stepped into the room and looked around. She was impressed; he got a room with a view. The furniture consisted of the hospital bed, a small table, and a hard plastic chair.

She hesitated for just a moment, awkwardly wondering why he would be mad, before she mentally shrugged her shoulders and decided that he would eventually tell her. It wasn't like him to keep his frustration bottled up. He liked confrontations, unless it dealt with stuff close to the heart. Max dredged up what confidence she could and strode boldly over to the chair, sitting down with a sassy plop. It was a wasted effort though when she looked up and noticed his intense stare. She fidgeted a little bit.

"Goin' somewhere?" He asked suddenly with narrowed eyes. Max jumped a little, but looked down at herself. She was wearing a black jacket, black pants, boots, black gloves, and her hair was tucked securely in her black beanie cap. It was all form-fitting, light cotton, and quiet. It was stealthy and breathable.

She let out a resigned sigh and spoke, "Logan has an idea on how to get into contact with the transgenics still left on the outside, because ironically enough, TC is the safest place to be right now."

Alec frowned, but before he could speak up and ask, she was already explaining.

"He came up with the idea of alerting the transgenics about TC. He used flash signals."

His eyebrows furrowed in disapproval. "Max, White has people who can decipher that. Heck, anyone who's been in the army for a year could find out what it's saying. You'll be leading them to their slaughter."

"It's encoded, practically indecipherable for an Ordinary. Hell, it took me a good hour to figure it out. It will take any Ordinary a week to crack it and find out what the coordinates are, and by then a new set will be running."

"And just who did you find that was smart enough to come up with a code challenging to transgenics who have an average IQ of 120?"

"He's a friend of Logan's."

Alec snorted. "Of course he is."

"And just what is that supposed to mean Al-ec?" Max asked through clenched teeth.

"Whatever you want it to mean."

There was a tense silence before Max cleared her throat and continued, "Either way, the code is going to run today. I have to get to the rendezvous point before anyone shows up."

Alec realized that she seemed almost…excited, like a kid on Christmas morning. He was upset at her obvious carelessness of her own safety. Any number of things could go wrong tonight, but she didn't appear to mind. He started to sit up.

Max's eyes widened in alarm. She stood up abruptly, pushing the chair back with a skidding noise that echoed throughout the room.

"What are you doing?" she asked, hands over his chest, but not quite touching him. He tried not to act like he noticed.

"I'm coming with you." He glanced at her hovering hands with a sneer. "Unless you think you can stop me."

They both knew that he was weakened, and it would be no trouble at all for her to keep him there. What Alec was referring to was her obvious unease at touching him. If he were to be honest with himself he would realize that it hurt him to know that the only time she could touch him was when she was spitting furious at him. But Alec didn't want to think on that. It led to too many problems. Right now he just cared about making her feel just the slightest bit of hurt he felt. He was challenging her, and both knew it.

It was silent a long time while the staring contest wore on, both waiting for the other to make a move.

When Max looked away, Alec found that he couldn't help commenting, "I'm not your boyfriend Max."

Max's eyes flew to his. They were misty and for the briefest of seconds, shone with hurt, before she literally steeled her face, Manticore mask in place.

"Whatever Alec," he winced internally at her ice cold tone. "I just came by to see if you were okay, so I guess I'll be on my way."

She walked to the door with brisk, clipped step, for once not showing an ounce of her feline fluidity. Alec watched her leave, feeling worse the farther she became. She had offended him, dammit. Why did he feel like the one in the wrong. He didn't have a virus like her deathly boyfriend. Why couldn't she touch him, even in a friendly way? Would she ever think of him as more than just a pain in the ass?

Alec let out a sigh and looked up at the cracked ceiling. He ran a hand through his hair, making it stick out in all directions. Either way, it was going to be a long night.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"It's done," Logan said as he hit the key to play the message.

"You do know that Special Agent White is not going to like this," a synthetic voice said from behind him. Logan turned to his computer which had a window pulled up with the face of a man in the wheelchair with his hand held up at an awkward angle, his moves uncoordinated.

"Sebastian, how do you know about White?" Logan asked slowly.

"I like to keep up on the latest cult theories. It keeps me entertained," the voice said.

Logan left his questioning there. The man, though handicapped in certain ways, more than made up for it in other areas. And a man who could know all about the Red series super soldiers, a top secret organization native to Africa, could certainly know about all of the cults in his own country. He turned back to the computer screen with the cable hack on it watching it play out.

"No, White's not going to like it one bit. Thank you, by the way, for being our code master. I'm not sure what we would have done without all of your help."

"Do not mention it," Sebastian's voice machine said, "I have always had a particular interest in the transgenic cause. Anyway to help is a good mark for my record."

"You're risking a lot just by talking to me," Logan said thoughtfully.

"No need to worry. I have security measures that could rival the infamous Eyes Only."

"Ha, ha," Logan deadpanned, but a small smile was playing about his lips. "Is that your way of rubbing in that you know my secret?"

"Perhaps I had not been sure, but you just confirmed it," the voice suggested. "Say hello to Max for me."

"Will do," Logan said, "Take care." Logan closed down the screen call.

Logan sat back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. He frowned as he watched the TV play his message.

White would definitely be upset. And when he let out the hounds, sniffing for blood, he would be looking for someone with a high IQ. Sebastian may not have been worried, but Logan had seen personally just what White was capable of.

It wouldn't take White long to make it through the short list of people with a high enough IQ to produce a daily code that takes any regular person a week to break.

And when White found Sebastian's name, there would be no stopping him.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Max got to the rendezvous point two hours before the time they had signaled. She had to get in secure position that wouldn't be easy to be cornered, yet she could see everything that happened. Nobody was getting into TC without Max Guevera's official stamp of approval.

She shifted a little in anticipation. It was officially time for people to show up. She couldn't help but be excited, having been sitting the same spot for two hours doing absolutely nothing. The action was about to begin, and it would help distract her from going over her reaction to Alec's words…again.

Max swore softly. She was doing it again. She fidgeted a little bit.

"God, you're not very good at this are you?" a voice spoke softly, just behind her.

She whirled around, throwing herself off balance. Max knew that if she fell, the only thing to look forward to breaking her fall was the concrete floor about thirty feet down.

A hand shot out and gripped her arm lightly, giving her the little bit she needed to regain her balance.

Her eyes shot up to meet the laughing eyes of Maxx. She growled and jerked her arm back, and to her utter disbelief, nearly fell off her perch again.

This time Maxx didn't bother to hide his laugh as he once again grabbed her and pulled her back. He didn't let go.

She grudgingly looked up to his face and saw his soft smile. He was clearly amused. She looked back down, frustrated.

Speaking to the ground she grit out, "You can let go now."

Maxx's smile widened. "No, I don't feel like carrying you back to MedBay if you fall and break your something," he stated, cheekily.

Making sure she had her footing, she pulled her arm from his grasp. She made a deliberate motion of turning away and crouching back down to her previous position, silently warning him to drop it.

He sighed, looked at her, and sat next to her, only wincing slightly as he came into contact at the ground. She let out a small smile, but turned her face so he couldn't see it.

Max really tried, she really did, but it was just too hard to resist. "How's the butt healing?"

Max assumed he sensed her amusement because he gave a silent snort instead of giving her the satisfaction of an answer.

Her small smile spread out. Max would rather die than admit this to Maxx, but she felt an instant relief having someone with her.

They sat in silence a while. Maxx was rolling his head and shoulders while scratching his neck. He let out a minuscule sigh, pulled his knees up, slung his arms across them, and twiddled his thumbs. He glanced at Max. She sat there, the perfect statue, if it wasn't for her eyes constantly searching the shadows.

...

An hour later Maxx checked his watch and made a face. With one glance at Max's still stature, he rolled his eyes and got more comfortable, settling in for a long night.

...

Two hours passed, the dials of his watch seeming to blur by as boredom overtook him and his mind slowly passed on, leaving him in a mild vegetative state. Something squealed, shaking him out of his stupor. His eyes focused on the small cluster of rats fighting over, what looked to be, a rotten anchovy head. He glanced at Max's ever alert position...that had yet to change. He frowned slightly, wondering whether he should be amazed or afraid. After a minute of staring, he closed his mouth and turned away, deciding to settle on a balanced mixture of the two. With his gaze back on the run-down building, he felt his boredom slowly returning like a lazy fog. With a last attempt to keep sane, he started counting.

...

Six rats (whom he had named), twelve windows, fifty-eight tiles, and four hundred fifty-six cracks later, Maxx was getting desperate. It was still dark out, though he was sure it was well past midnight, and (surprise surprise) Max had yet to move. He was no longer awed. That had sailed long ago when a truck out on the street had backfired, making an ungodly boom. Maxx had bounced about a foot in the air, but Max hadn't even blinked. That was when his wonder vanished to be replaced by worry. He'd gone back to counting, but had to start over multiple times because his eyes had kept straying back to her, and he would lose track of the number he'd been on. Eventually he had given up and taken to just flat out watching her...which was what he'd been doing the last ten minutes.

He was mentally debating with himself when he reached out slowly. "Max?"

Right before he reached her, she spoke, "Don't touch me."

His hand jerked back before he could stop it. He scowled at it. Maxx looked up and, to his dismay, jumped again when he found Max facing him, a crooked smile on her face. As his shock wore off, his scowl returned.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." He detected no remorse in her voice.

Maxx was mad for a second before he realized that the silence had finally been broken.

"Max, it's obvious nobody's-"

"They might be late," she hissed, turning back to her previous position. Maxx sensed that he was getting ready to lose her again.

"You play cards?" When she paused and turned back to him, he immediately buried his hand in his pocket, fishing out the cards with an extravagant flourish. Despite her coldness, a small smile tugged at her lips. Not wanting to let her back out, he shuffled once before sending cards flying back and forth with an expert deal, his hands blurring. He looked back up at her with a straight face and stated, "Alright, game's Go Fish. Straight ball, no undo-s, or redraws. Key of the game is to get pairs. Now, let's keep it a nice clean battle, no tricks. I dealt. You're first."

Max stared at him, "I know what Go Fish is." She looked in his eyes and suddenly smiled. "Why can I never stay mad at you?"

He grinned, silently waiting for her to pick up her pile. She shook her head and, with a smirk, reached for her cards.

"You're impossible."

"You love me," Maxx shot back, nonplussed.

"Got any queens?"

"Nope," he said, popping the 'p' loudly. She drew a card. "Alrighty Maxie, ready to see how the pros play?"

Max raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, real big money maker, that Go Fish."

Maxx frowned, "Okay, it doesn't star in the casinos, so what? I bet tons of criminals secretly love it." He placed down some cards. "That's two jacks up on you Max. Better be careful."

Max smiled at him, "Got any two's?"

He grimaced and handed his two over. "Minor set back, don't you worry Max. I'm still in the game."

Her smile grew and she kept her eyes on his face. He grinned back at her, but his eyes distracted down rapidly. They grew wide as Max continued to lay down pairs, finishing her whole hand out with the last pair being the two's.

His eyes flew back up to her extremely smug face.

"You know _Maxxie, _I've never seen it played by pros, but I think I like my way better," she said with a cheeky grin.

He didn't respond, just picked the cards up and handed them to her to shuffle. "Again."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Alec was staring out the window of his hospital room with tense shoulders and a clenched jaw.

The only prominent thought that was running through his head was how he shouldn't be here. He should be with Max, watching her back like she had done for him so many times, even before they had moved from slight enemies to grudging acquaintances. This whole plan that they had was bad. But she trusted it implicitly because it had the Logan Cale stamp of approval.

Granted, any transgenics left in the outside world were now at a double risk due to all the bad exposure that had been running in the news. The safest place right now really was here in TC. Not only that, but Max had sort of built something here when she united the people with her persuasive rhetoric.

He still got goose bumps when he remembered her impassioned speech.

Alec could even understand where Max and Logan were coming from when they wanted to give the opportunity to share this experience with all of the transgenics. The ones still on the outside hadn't been given much of a choice, now that the National Guard had become TC's own personal Mr. Rodgers.

Sending out a signal to the other transgenics would give them a chance to experience something that many had never felt before.

A home.

Alec understood all of that, but he would feel a whole hell of a lot better if he could be next to Max right now, making sure that this original Eyes Only plan wasn't the one that got her killed. He said that because he knew that one day, there would be a time when Max wouldn't be able to wiggle her way out of the endless tight spots Logan seemed to put her in without a care in the world. There would be a time like that, and one of these times, Alec wouldn't make it in time to save her. Logan Cale would be the end of her yet.

Alec watched the monitor's steady blips and beeping.

The door to his room opened. Alec put on a smile, ready to greet the pretty X5 nurse that had been taking care of him.

But she wasn't who walked through the door. It was like picking up a glass and expecting nice, refreshing water, and instead getting that eye-watering, mouth-puckering taste of lemonade.

Alec expected his face looked the same as it had when that happened to him the one time, when he saw that it was Mole who walked through the door.

"Ah, what a sight for sore eyes," Alec jibbed.

"Took the words right outta my mouth, Princess," Mole shot back. Mole looked around the room quickly, but didn't seem to find what it was he had come for.

"Looking for someone?"

Mole's eyes looked back at him, as if sizing him up. He took a long drag on his cigar, Alec wasn't sure how he had managed to get that by the doctor, before coming to a silent conclusion. "You wouldn't by chance know where the Ice Queen is now, would you?"

Alec let a smirk cross his lips. "If by know, you mean one hundred percent certain, and by 'Ice Queen', you mean Max; then no, I wouldn't know where she is."

Mole scowled at him. Suddenly the nurse walked past his room. A few seconds later she appeared in the doorway.

"For god's sakes, lizard-man, you can't smoke in a hospital," she said, showing no fear as she walked right up to the stunned man and pulled it from his lax face.

Mole's mouth dropped open slightly as he watched her ground the stub under her foot, snuffing the life out of one of his precious Cubans.

Alec winced, sure that he was going to have to step in between the nurse and Mole, and it was going to be painful, but to his surprise, Mole just kept staring at the nurse as she continued to scold him, and then she was on her way out the door, resuming whatever she had been doing previously.

Finally, Mole closed his mouth, a slow grin splitting his reptilian-like face. He turned to Alec, lifting a thumb and pointing it over his shoulder to the door. "She's feisty."

"Riiiight," Alec said, wanting to stop the conversation right there before he imagined Mole gettin' his game on…oh, shit. Too late.

"Almost makes a man willing to throw a fight, if she's willing to nurse his wounds," Mole said, grinning.

Alec held his hands up with a pained look on his face. "Alright, alright. Now, Max is obviously busy right now. She said something about meeting transgenics still on the outside and smuggling them into TC."

Mole looked thoughtful for a moment. "So she's…busy."

"Yep," Alec said, popping the 'p.'

"Alright then, you're gonna have to come with me," Mole said walking over to his bed and pulling on wires carelessly.

Alec frowned. "Why?"

Quick as a flash, Alec's hand shot out and grabbed the "wire" about to be yanked in Mole's hand. Mole stopped his yanking and noticed what Alec had been painfully made aware of. The wire was actually his IV line, attached in his skin by a needle. Mole gave him an apologetic grimace.

"Because something's come up back at HQ, and we need someone to call the shots," Mole said, watching Alec carefully remove the needle.

"Yeah, why me? For the love of…I'm in a hospital bed," Alec said heavily enunciating.

"Yeah, you faker. I heard you were only in here for precautionary reasons, but now that I got a good look at your nurse…" Mole trailed off suggestively, looking back towards the door as if expecting her to walk by.

Alec rolled his eyes. "Well, why couldn't you do it?"

Mole looked back at him with a frown. "Because I'm not the Second in Command."

"And I am," Alec concluded, finally seeing the light. "And just who decided this?"

Mole's frown deepened. "Didn't you know?" At Alec's impatient look, Mole continued. "Max."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

...

It was finally morning. The sky was just beginning to morph into colors when Maxx threw his cards down and crossed his arms. His lousy hand splayed out across the numerous pairs Max had laid out in front of her.

"Every _damn _time! I'm done!"

Max smiled at his antics. He noticed.

"No, don't do that!"

"Do what?"

His hands waved furiously at her face, "Don't do _that! _That condescending look that makes me feel like I'm five again."

"Well if the boot-"

"The boot doesn't FIT!"

"Oh really?"

"Really!"

He crossed his arms again.

"Well, it sure ain't me who's throwin the hissy fit," she sassed back, eyebrows raised. Maxx looked down at his arms and quickly uncrossed them.

Max smiled. Maxx pouted.

"You're such a dork," she laughed, ruffling his hair. She finally seemed to notice how late it was. "Woah, we need to get back. It's already five o'clock."

Maxx immediately forgot about his four hour losing streak, jumping to his feet in excitement. "Can I ride with you?"

She did a double take. "What about Madeline?"

"I didn't bring her. She's still recovering from her last incident with you," he said pointedly.

Max ignored the jab, "So how'd you get here?"

He frowned, "I walked?"

"You walked from here to TC?"

"Well technically I walked from TC to here, but if you-"

"Maxx." He looked at her face and stopped talking. She rolled her eyes, "Why did you walk all the way from TC?"

He gave her a weird look, "Madeline was-"

"I know poor Madeline was tired. If you didn't have another car, why didn't you just stay back?"

He looked a little hurt, but mostly confused. "You're my friend Max. I was worried about you."

"Oh," she stumbled out, lamely. There was an awkward silence as Max tried to think of something to say. Maxx seemed to notice this.

"What's wrong Maxie, don't you like me?" he pooched his bottom lip out and bugged his eyes into an exaggerated pout, blinking rapidly. Max laughed despite herself.

"Come on, let's go."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

They pulled into Maxx's place. Well, it's really TC's garage, but Maxx had turned one of the back rooms into a mini-apartment so he could "keep an eye on Madeline". In the end it worked out well since TC got a twenty-four hour guard and the resources of the best get-away van ever. Maxx liked it because while he didn't like big crowds, he did like people, so he always had a steady stream of new people to talk to, but not at an over-whelming amount at a time.

That couldn't be said today.

As soon as they pulled in they were swamped with people all trying to say something at the same time. It was a frantic mess and Max couldn't understand any of them.

"QUIET!" Max looked up, startled. She knew that voice, but it definitely shouldn't be here. Alec pushed his way through to see what had caused all the commotion. His eyes landed on Max, then behind her to where Maxx sat, and grew cold.

"Max."

"Alec," she matched his bitingly formal tone. "What's going on?"

"Last night there was a supply run." Max wanted to scowl. Of course there was a supply run. It she who had decided that they should have at least one every night until they had plenty of food. Then they would switch to once a week to keep the chances of getting caught down. Alec was doing this on purpose to upset her, which was the only reason she kept her face carefully neutral.

"And?" she prompted.

"And they were caught."

He had said it seriously, without any hint of malice. Obviously he was upset too, but when he said those words, Max felt like she had been hit in the lungs with a bat. How? How could they have been discovered?

He answered the question running through her mind, "We're not sure."

Her eyes left his to take in the faces of all the gathered transgenics. Alec looked around too, as if just remembering they were there. He scowled.

"Apparently I'm your SIC," he said sardonically. "I was getting ready to head the retrieval squad out to get our people back."

Max nodded numbly, trying to swallow the fact that Alec had actually taken responsibility.

"I know, shocker," he said with a shiver. He must be part mind reader.

"Anyway, it's all organized and we're ready to head out so..." he gestured to where they were parked in the middle of the opening.

Max shook her head, "Right." She turned the key, revved it twice, and kicked up the kickstand.

"Alright, clear a path everybody! Come on, out of the way!" Alec ushered her through the open trail. When she was near the back wall, she threw the kickstand down and waited for Maxx to climb off. She then stood up, pocketed the key, and turned to watch the group swarm outside into the early morning. Maxx folded his arms across his chest and leaned next to her. Max lifted the sunglasses up to the top of her head, splaying her hair out like a headband. Alec and Mole were the last inside, having a hushed conversation. Max ventured over.

"Alec, I don't think you should go," she spoke firmly.

Their heads snapped up to face her. Mole's held no expression, while Alec's could barely contain his sneer.

"What, do _you _plan on going? You just got back from an 'all night scout'."

"Yes, I _did," _she enforced, "but you just got back from a hostage situation. You're in no condition to lead these people." She softened her voice a little when she spoke again, "I'll do it."

"_You _don't know the plan. You've been at your little 'midnight rendezvous' with Maxx."

There was a tone to Alec's voice that Max wasn't entirely sure what was, but knew that it was pleasant. She was quiet a moment. "Just what exactly are you insinuating, Al-ec?"

"What do you think! Don't worry about this, I'll handle it, Ma-ax!" he wretched his gun from Mole's grip and stomped out the door. Max glared at his back, fuming. When he turned out of sight, she became aware of a pain in her hands. She unclenched them and stared at the little red half-moons across her palm and her bloody finger nails.

"This ain't good." Max looked up at Mole. He continued, "I watched the surveillance. It was just like Alec's. They didn't hesitate, they just..._knew."_

She let his words sink in. Spinning on her heel, she nodded her goodbyes at Maxx and stormed off through the tunnels. When she didn't hear Mole's echoing footsteps, she hollered, "You coming?"

It echoed back to the two left in the room. They looked at one another, uncertain.

"Mole, if I have to come back there and get your lizard ass in gear, it _will not _be pleasant!"

Maxx sent him a pity look. Mole grumbled and chewed on his cigar stump, before slinging his sawed-off across his shoulder and taking off.

Max continued on down the mazes of TC, a loud set of footsteps trailing after her.

Max was tired of worrying over supply runs when they should be so simple. Something seriously wrong was happening. It was possibly fatal too. They needed to get to the bottom of this once and for all.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

White was furious. He clicked off the bulletin and turned to the mousy looking man next to him.

"This has been playing all day and you still don't know what it's saying," White growled menacingly.

"I-I kn-know that it's pertaining to the transgenics. I deciphered that much," he offered nervously.

"It's an Eyes Only broadcast. Of course it's going to be about the transgenics! Get out of my sight. And if you don't have the code translated by tomorrow you can kiss your wife goodbye."

The man hurried from the room.

White turned the remote back at the TV, starting the screen to life. He watched with a hateful scowl as the blue and red bulletin played. He was really sick of that man. He had been nothing but a thorn in his side since the day he first saw his eyes run across the screen.

There would be no close escape when White found Eyes Only again. And he would find him again.

When he did, White wouldn't have to ever worry about seeing his righteous eyes ever again.


	9. S03E09 Undercover

It was dull outside, raining as was usual for Seattle weather. It was surprisingly more upsetting than Max had believed, already accustomed to having a sunrise paint the sky. Two cloudless mornings in a row and already Max was used to it.

She wasn't sure if that was entirely the reason though. When Alec had been captured, she had taken the sunrise as a good omen. At the time she hadn't truly believed it. She wasn't really one for believing in superstitions. Just like Zack and his belief about good luck.

"_There's no such thing. Success depends on having a well thought out plan that's executed with precision."_

And after the whole Ben thing, she wasn't one for believing in faith. But it had been a comfort nonetheless, and they had gotten Alec out, taking relative few injuries, Maxx's butt aside.

The clouds today put a damper on her hopes though. She could only hope that whatever happened, nobody was hurt too bad.

When Max walked into HQ, Luke had been waiting for her, back to his computer, hands on his knees. Max almost barked at him to see why he had just been sitting there, but he absolutely shone with worry. He tried to look casual, but he was leant forward, his spine rigid.

His eyes met hers and held them. "I don't like this one bit."

His voice was solemn. Mole swore.

Resigned, Max nodded. "Let's see it, Luke."

"I'm just waiting on Dix's baby to finish rendering the feed, but Channel 8's been playing it all day." Without waiting for her response, he swiveled around and fumbled with the dials. The TV crackled to life with a woman's voice talking in a lively, nonstop spiel.

"Now, they aren't releasing exactly what their, so far, successful technology is, but I'm here with Senator Rob McKinley." She turned to him. "Senator McKinley, can you shed some light for the people of Seattle?"

He chuckled. "Why certainly. Now, as you said earlier, we, for obvious reasons, can't reveal our methods, but I can assure you that it is a reliable process. Our success rate so far is over ninety percent."

"Wow! What an impressive statistic!" She laughed into the camera. "Now I'll be able to feel safe when I walk down the streets again."

Mole grumbled something about dumb blondes.

"Well Mr. McKinley, our time is coming to a close, and I'm sure you are a very busy man. I just want to say that I speak for all of Seattle when I say that it's very comforting to have such a wise and powerful _man _working to keep us safe." Max rolled her eyes.

"Please," he touched her shoulder, "Call me Rob."

She giggled. "Okay…Rob." She turned to the camera. "Well, that's all we have for now, but we'll be keeping you updated all day. For now we will have a short program about the mysterious origin of the transgenics with a short documentary of Project Manticore created by our very own staff followed by…"

Luke leaned forward sluggishly and twisted the dial, cutting her off. They brewed in the silence, trying to let it all sink in. Luke slowly swirled around to face them.

"Well, this is just fan-flipping-tastic!" Mole ground out around his cigar.

"Actually, it might be," Max added thoughtfully, still staring at the blank TV.

Luke and Mole snapped to around to face her.

Mole's eyes narrowed. "Just what exactly are you up to Princess?"

Max glared as she was brought out of her plan-making by the nickname. "I thought that was Alec's nickname," she said distastefully.

Mole grinned, causing the Cuban in the corner of his mouth to angle up. "I'm a resourceful man. I can come up with another…" he trailed off suggestively with a mischievous promise in his eyes. Max was about to retort when she was distracted. Dix came bustling through the door, brandishing a square disc made of black plastic. Max frowned.

"What _is _that?" she asked.

Dix faltered a little. "Uh…I think they called them 3 ½ inch flippy drives or something." He shook his head and shoved it into a slot on the motherboard. "But that doesn't matter." He clicked the mouse a couple times and pulled a program up. "What _does _matter is that we have the equipment ancient enough to use them, and this particular one contains the feed from the building our team entered."

Luke looked at him with a grin. "I can't believe you did it. You actually hacked that? It's not even in the live-stream!"

Dix smiled. "No, but the sector police secured it for 'official reasons' and had it up on their database."

Luke's face suddenly went slack. "No way!"

Dix's smile grew.

Max shared a look with Mole.

"No goddamn way!" Luke exclaimed.

Mole seemed to suddenly lose what little patience he had and growled, "What exactly is going on?"

Luke was in a slight state of shock with his eyes locked on Dix while he answered for him, "Our cocky little friend here actually jacked a copy of high security evidence right under the proverbial chins of the Seattle PD."

"I swear," Max mumbled to herself, and then louder she said, "The expression is right under their noses."

Luke waved it off, "Same thing. How did you do it?"

"Uh…it's complicated. I'll tell you later," He turned to Max. "Ready?"

Max glanced at Mole uncertainly. He too, was confused, and that gave her the courage to tell Dix to continue. He pushed play.

It was a black and white of broken clips that gave a rather rough recap of what happened.

"Sorry about the quality. The police have the same thing. It's the system at the grocery store. It was older than Lydecker."

Max's lips quirked up, but she couldn't bring herself to smile fully due to the seriousness of the situation.

Mole grunted, "Déjà vu."

Max had to agree. The reel was eerily familiar to Alec's capture.

They watched it all the way through, then again three more times. They watched it backwards, forwards, brokenly, and in slow-mo. Max suddenly dropped her feet from the top of the desk and stood up.

"Well fellas, I gotta blaze. Dix and Luke, you play with that feed. See what you can do with it. Mole, you're in charge of debriefing the rescue team when they get back…" she paused in thought for a little bit, "…and rescuing them if they don't."

They all looked up at her, unconsciously springing to attention from their half-dead, bored stances.

"Just where do you think you're going Princess?" Mole grunted out around his cigar, while rising to his feet defiantly.

"I gotta hot date with a power-hungry senator."

Luke was the one to catch on first. "You can't do that! He's too dangerous. Did you see him hitting on that news lady? She could've been his daughter. It was disgusting."

Max gave a devilish smile. "Exactly why I know he'll take this girl to dinner-"

Dix interrupted. "You're going to seduce him for information," he said without emotion. Mole stiffened.

Max continued with a little more seriousness, "Don't worry about me. Girls kick ass."

Luke still looked troubled, but he kept quiet.

Max turned and walked outside.

The gray clouds were dismal and cast an abandoned glow over the buildings of TC.

The door she just came out of creaked open, a slight tangy burnt scent filled her senses as the unmistakable smell of fresh Cuban smoke surrounded her.

"You must think you're some kind of superchick," an unmistakable voice drawled out from behind her.

Max didn't turn.

He continued anyway. "Always running off to save the day. Always jumping before you think. It's pure stupidity. Do you not care about yourself at all?"

Max's stance softened a bit. "I'll be fine Mole," she said softly.

"You're the leader of TC. If anything happens to you, this place will fall apart. Your little dream doesn't exist without you."

Max was quiet. Her shoulders began to square. Her jaw clenched and her tone was icy when she spoke. "Don't worry. I'll not endanger _your _dream of a long life with Cuban cigars by acting stupidly."

"God damn it! That's not-"

"Forget about it," she said shortly. "I have."

Mole cursed from behind her. "But god you're stubborn chick." He sighed. "Just…that old geezer gives me the creeps, and not only in 'I-wanna-rut-with-my-offspring' way like Luke thinks."

Max stayed silent, and then started to walk off.

"Watch your back."

She hesitantly nodded, relenting her anger at his sincere tone. "I will."

She walked off, missing the look on Mole's face.

"Come on girl. No sista o mine is gonna work her magic on some power man like the senator without an Original Cindy manicure."

"You know," Max said with a grin, "I coulda swore I just asked for help with a disguise."

"And that's what you got. Now we just waitin on the wig to get its late-ass here. And instead o' sittin here, twiddling our thumbs like some white fool, Original Cindy is making use of the time."

"That's just your excuse," Max accused.

"Damn straight. This girl's gotta use ev'ry 'scuse available."

A knock on the door sounded. OC swore, looked at her watch, and then glared at the door. She walked toward it muttering, "Damn fool. Thinks he can show up early-"

Max let out an indignant sound.

"-Original Cindy oughta lay the smack down on his ass."

A muffled voice filtered through the door. "I can hear you, you know."

Max smiled. It was Logan, and he sounded a bit miffed.

OC rolled her eyes. "Ya, ya! OC's comin!" She lowered her voice even further, "No good rich boy." She reached the door. It swung open and revealed Logan standing there, glaring down at her.

Without Max willing it, laughter bubbled up and spilled out of her, making her the new target of Logan's glare.

"Think this is funny?" he asked sharply.

Max held up her hands defensively. "Hey, I'm a victim here too," she said, her smile never leaving her face. She stared at Cindy as she continued, "She told me you were running late," she turned back to Logan with a grin, "but since you're actually _early, _I don't have to get a manicure."

It took a while, but eventually Logan's glare disappeared as he let out a chuckle. "I guess that is a _little _funny."

"Well, I'm glad everyone's happy," OC said with a huff.

"So who's the lucky guy tonight?" Logan asked.

Max put a hand over her heart and frowned, "No 'hello Max, how ya doin?'. Just dive straight in." She grinned, "How typically Cale of you."

Logan smiled devilishly, but kept quiet.

Max let out an overly big sigh before explaining. "I'll be dining with Senator McKinley, _if _you have to know."

Logan's head whip-lashed back slightly in surprise. He blinked once. "But nothing big," he said flippantly.

Max smirked, "Exactly."

Logan shook his head at her. "Max, Max, Max…what troubles doest thou stir?"

"If she told you she'd have to kill you," OC deadpanned, "Now will you two stop flirting and get back on topic."

The older man's head whipped to attention, zeroing in on Max's frozen face. She knew he was wondering why she hadn't told OC about their "falling out". She wasn't sure herself. She usually told Cindy everything.

When Logan apologized to OC, Max was both surprised and thankful.

"Don't worry about it. You two prolly don't get to see much of each other. Original Cindy can understand the finer concepts of taking advantage of the opportunities available."

Logan smiled awkwardly, while Max mentally groaned. He shot Max a look that promised her he would be getting in contact with her later.

OC suddenly leaned over the table, palms down and splayed, leveling Max with a determined look. "Now, how bout you two do ya thing while I do ya nails."

Max rolled her eyes heavenwards with a groan, while Logan watched. He wasn't smiling, lucky for him, but she could clearly see the mirth dancing in his eyes.

Alec was pleasantly pleased with his self, though he usually was. This time was different…definitely. See while it took very little effort on his part to be happy with his person, he was sure he had just accomplished something that Max would both be happy _and _impressed with. He led the rescue team valiantly, swooping down on the evil guards and rescuing the poor helpless friends. His imagination was spinning the story out faster than his honed mind could take it in.

Alec would swoop into the garage, where Max would be waiting- not out of expectation, but out of…resignation. She wouldn't trust him to complete a job and she would just be sitting there, propped against her motorcycle, waiting for a call from Luke to confirm his muck up. Oh, but how she was wrong…this time. He had not only succeeded, but also gathered intel and evidence. When they pulled into to TC's garage, her eyes would grow big and her mouth would drop open. She'd stare in awe long enough for him to smirk at her - before she would notice his smug expression and start yelling out orders. Everyone would scramble to attention and head back to HQ to be debriefed. They'd be alone…and he would take advantage of it. He would tease her a little, get her riled up and yelling at him, and then he would pull the rug from beneath her feet. He would tell her about what he'd found out and she would be speechless, for the second time, by his actions. And finally, after everything, she would grudgingly give him something he had been after since…well, since she kicked him across her Manticore cell. And no, not sex…surprisingly. It was much simpler with Max. It was _different _with Max. Sure, the more…erm, _private _thoughts that usually came when thinking of a female were still there. Definitely. But he was after something that she gave out even rarer than sex.

Alec was after her approval.

It was something special. Something he needed. And he hated it.

It made him feel like some awe-struck puppy, lapping around, always nipping at her heels in the hope that she'll give him her affection and attention.

He shook his head to clear his dark thoughts. Nothing was going to bring him down from the adrenaline-high he was on from a job well-done. If he was acting like his good friend Joshua, then so be it. He didn't care right now. He smiled as Lissa, the X5 driving, pulled off, leading the two-van caravan up to the closed doors of TC's garage. The vans were actually picked up on the way there. As much as Maxx may bother him, Alec couldn't deny the fact that it was infinitely easier to make it through the checkpoints with a large group of transgenics when they had a vehicle. Lissa did a quick look into her mirrors, briefly scouting the area, though it was pointless since she was one of the best in losing a tail back at Manticore. She pulled to a stop, threw it in neutral, revved the engine shortly, and then again for a longer amount of time.

The doors suddenly started to rise. Alec found himself sitting up straighter trying to see under the doors. He berated himself and deliberately slouched against his seat and sprawling his feet on the dashboard. Lissa turned to give him a look, but he pretended not to notice, staring straight ahead. His brows met together in a frown when the doors raised enough to reveal two pairs of feet, neither particularly feminine. His feet dropped to the ground, forgoing his nonchalant display as he leaned forward. Alec knew Max's roughed up boots were neither girly, nor particularly flattering, but he was positive that she did not wear either the men's tennis shoes on the left or the even bigger combats on the right. He stayed ramrod straight until the door was fully open though, hoping maybe she was lurking farther back in the garage. She wasn't.

Mole lowered his shotgun, while Maxx gave him an exasperated look. They parted ways letting the van through. Alec rolled down his window when Mole tapped it with his shotgun, hearing Lissa doing the same for Maxx.

"Well hell, welcome back," Mole said from the side of his mouth that was unoccupied by cigar.

"I told you it was them. I don't know why you insisted on barring the door with your shotgun," Maxx said speaking through to where Mole was propped against the passenger side door, checking out the van. Maxx noticed too and stopped his rant to lean in a little, taking in the van's interior. "Where'd you get these toys?"

After an awkward silence where Alec refused to answer, Lissa replied, "Alec got 'em. He said it was easier to get through the checkpoints that way."

Maxx smiled at Alec, but stopped when it was unreciprocated. He cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah. It is easier…I don't suppose you would mind if I tweaked with these a spell, do you?"

Alec wanted to snap at him, but there was something child-like in Maxx's eyes that stopped him. He found himself instead nodding, albeit a little grudgingly.

Maxx punched his fist in the air and whooped. "Suh-weeeet!" He then did a total 360. He backed away from the window, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention. "Alright people, pull in and rest 'em beside ol' Madeline over there. Come on people, move it lose it! I got work to do." He clapped three more times for emphasis, before he disappeared to one of the back rooms.

Lissa let out a laugh and pulled forward to park.

"Joshua doesn't have any two's. Go fish."

Mole grumbled, but leaned forward and drew up a card.

It was silent a moment. Mole looked up from his cards, eyebrows raised. "It's your turn Wolf Boy."

"You think Little Fella okay?"

Mole rolled his eyes. _Not again._

"I'm sure she's fine, okay. She went to dinner with an old geezer. How dangerous is that?"

"How dangerous going to hospital? How dangerous going to store? How dangerous going to outside world? How dangerous walking down street?" Joshua's voice had risen with each question. "Everything dangerous," he said quietly.

Mole didn't respond.

"I thought Manticore dangerous. Manticore not like outside world though. Maybe Manticore not dangerous after all," Joshua said sadly.

"Hey," Mole interrupted. Joshua looked up with big eyes. "I know I give the Ice Queen a hard time about everything, but we are better off now than we were back at that shit hole."

Joshua nodded, perplexed by Mole's strong opinion. Of all the transgenics here, he would have thought that he would have been the one wanting Manticore back.

"Don't go getting weak on us now, Wolfie. We got some tough shit to go through. But don't you forget, there ain't nothing worse than Manticore, got it?"

"Joshua got it," he said nodding his head quickly.

"Good," Mole grumbled, leaning back against the wall again.

It was quiet once more. Mole's eyes glanced up. "It's still your-"

"Mole not like Manticore?" Joshua asked, giving no indication that he had heard Mole.

There was no reasoning with him while he was worried like this. It was best to just talk it out.

Mole folded his hand of cards up and sighed. "No, Mole not like Manticore," he said rudely.

"Why?" Joshua asked, his head tilted to the side.

"Well, for one, they didn't keep my pretty ass stocked with Cubans."

Joshua smiled fondly. "Little Fella keep Joshua's ass stocked with mac 'n cheese and those little, tiny hot dogs," Joshua let out a growl. "Love tiny hot dogs."

Mole nodded, looking off into space. "Yep, that she does. That she does." He focused, his eyes narrowed on Joshua. "And for god's sake don't cuss in front her. She'll have my ass on a platter if she finds out you picked that up from me."

Joshua agreed, shaking his head. His eyes were big as he said, "Yes, Joshua don't want his ass on platter, too."

Mole looked up at the ceiling, exasperated, but Joshua didn't say anything more, so he looked back down and spread out his hand.

"Mole scared of Little Fella?"

Mole looked up. "What! I most certainly am not scared of her."

Joshua didn't say anything, but the grin on his face spoke volumes.

Mole narrowed his eyes at him. "I'll have you know Wolfie, that I'm probably the only one in all of TC that's not scared of her. She's just show anyway. Half of this place could take her. She only got nine years of training!" He looked back down, mumbling at his cards.

It was quiet a beat before Mole heard a very soft, "Mole scared of Little Fella."

Mole's head shot up. "Did you not hear a word I just said? For a canine, you have lousy hearing."

"Joshua's hearing fine!" Joshua replied indignantly.

"Well, obviously not."

"Joshua hear fear in voice," he said sagely.

"You been smoking?"

"No," he said frantically. "Joshua not smoke in long time. Smoking bad. Smoking make people scream. Little Fella was mad when Joshua smoke. Joshua don't want to make Little Fella mad. See?"

"I see you've been smoking," Mole deadpanned.

"No, Joshua will not smoke ever."

"Then what, in the name of all that is holy, was I supposed to _see?" _

"It okay to be afraid of Little Fella. Joshua afraid of Little Fella. Mole afraid of Little Fella. Upstairs people afraid of Little Fella. White scared of Little Fella. Alec scared of Little Fella-"

Mole snorted at the last one. "Amen to that! He is so whipped."

Joshua frowned. "Alec whipped."

"Yeah, you know. He's wimpy. He can't stand up to her. He lets her command him around. He listens to _everything_ she says-"

Joshua's eyes were wide as he interrupted. "Oh no, oh no. Joshua whipped, too!"

Mole snorted. "I don't think that's quite the same."

"How come?"

"You do it cause you like her. Alec does it cause he _liiiiiiikes _her, if you catch my wind."

Joshua's eyes lit up. "Max and Alec gettin' busy?"

Mole guffawed, slapping his knee. "Sure are, Wolfie. They sure are."

Joshua leaned back, satisfied.

It was quiet.

"Mole got any two's."

Mole swore and leaned forward to hand his two over, but paused midway. His eyes narrowed. "Didn't I just ask you for two's?"

Joshua nodded.

"Then how can you have a two."

Joshua frowned. "That how you play."

Mole stared at him for a beat. "Who taught you how to play?"

"Alec?" Joshua asked, uncertain.

"That's what I thought."

She grasped the sink with both hands, welcoming the cool kiss of the porcelain. She was burning up, her head spinning. Shaky hands reached for the knobs. The water responded eagerly, rushing out to cleanse her sweaty palms. It was such a relief that she cupped her hands and brought it up to her face. The heat subsided, clearing her muddled brain, easing the pounding in her temples, but only for a few seconds.

She had excused herself from the table when she started heating up, worried she was in heat, but by the time she made it to the restaurant's bathroom she had been stumbling. She needed to get somewhere private so she could talk to Logan.

She felt sorry for ever making fun of Sketchy when he came to work with a hangover.

"You alright?" That voice sounded familiar. She tried to remember why, but the best she could come up with was blurry images of glasses and some sort of chair on wheels…what do they call those? Manticore had taught her that.

No, she had escaped before that…right?

She didn't know. Her head pounded, her mind blurred again, and suddenly she couldn't remember why she was in a hospital.

Wait, a hospital?

She shook her head, but it didn't help.

Her eyes glanced up to the mirror, and she felt a shiver race up her spine.

Something was wrong.

The person staring back at her looked awful. Her face was pale, sweat was already starting to bead on her lip and forehead again, and the make-up she had so painstakingly applied was running down and smearing. Why didn't she remember putting on make-up?

She groaned, dropping her head to the mirror.

The voice in her head sounded alarmed now. She decided she was going crazy if her own mind could worry about anything when all she felt like doing was dropping to the cold tiled ground and trying to put as much skin against it as she could.

Suddenly, the air was suffocating. The dress she was wearing was like a greenhouse, the material condensing her sweat and itching her tender skin. She pulled with enough force to rip the dress, but it didn't rip. Instead she pulled it over her head. As the icy air hit her skin, her legs shook in relief, before they gave out beneath her. She dropped like a deadweight to her knees, but didn't even wince though she heard a sickening crack echo throughout the room. She felt like her whole DNA was resifting in itself, twirling restlessly.

She picked her head up and brought it down against the floor, trying to get the voice to just _shut up. _She didn't care who Max was. She just wished her mind would shut up.

Feet came into her line of sight. The last thing she saw was their shiny shoes meeting her face.

AAAAAAAA

There was silence on the end of the line.

Logan debated a moment.

Logan hadn't ever really thought of Max as vulnerable. The only time he had ever really been worried for her, he could count on one hand. After she was beat up by the Reds, the time she ran out of tryptophan, and the time they raided Manticore and she was…

Anyway, they had been in a lot of dangerous situations together, and Logan had never panicked before. It gave him the good reason to trust the little nagging feeling he had eating at his nerves right now as he listened to the silence on the other end of the radio. It proved that Logan was not one to panic at the drop of a dime.

But…it was honestly supposed to be an easy job. All she had to do was seduce information out of a harmless, well, powerful but harmless, old man.

Maybe he _was_ just overreacting.

He waited a few seconds more, drummed his fingers on the desk before he pulled out the keyboard and started typing.

Finding what he was looking for he hit enter. TC's HQ showed up in a window on his screen. The camera's view showed people running back and forth. He called out, but none stopped.

His fingers tapped in thought, before they started up again. His eyebrows creasing as he worked his magic. He moved his eyes over the screen quickly.

A grin spread across his face as he clicked on a particular number. "Gothca."

Dix's face popped up. Logan, for the most part kept from reacting, though he was still getting used to the physicals of the earlier X-series. Dix looked flat out surprised.

"Logan?" he asked tentatively, and then he said with more force, "How did you manage to hack into this?"

"Doesn't matter right now," he said talking in his no-nonsense tone, "Listen I need a favor, is Alec there?"

Dix looked a little confused. Luke's face popped into the screen.

He smiled. "Hey Logan, buddy, you're gonna have to tell us how you keep hacking our system. If you can do it, others can and we wouldn't want-"

"Alec's on a mission," Dix said finally, interrupting Luke.

"Alec?" Luke looked worried now, "What's wrong with Alec? What do you know?"

Logan shook his head, trying to keep his patience, and speaking with his eyes closed. "Nothing is wrong with Alec…that I know of," he added as afterthought while he opened his eyes once again. "Look, it might not be anything, but Max was supposed to have dinner with Senator McKinley-"

"We know," Luke chimed.

" – but she's not answering me." The other two were silent. Logan went on, "It may not be anything. She may just be busy-"

"You've worked with her a lot, right?" Dix inquired.

"Well, yeah."

"Has she ever not answered you before?"

Logan wanted to smack himself in the forehead. "No. Listen I need Alec to go there and check it out…"

Luke was already shaking his head "no". "He's out right now."

"Oh, well, is there anyone you can-"

He heard Max groan. He grabbed his microphone and brought up to his mouth. "Max?"

She didn't answer.

"Max, are you alright? Come on, speak to me. Max. Max!"

Luke and Dix were both looking worried now. They flagged down someone and quietly relayed the information, but had to pause.

Dix spoke up. "Hey Logan?"

Logan didn't notice them. He was trying to listen to anything else coming from Max.

"Logan!"

Logan looked up, finally aware of their presence again.

"Logan, what restaurant are they at?"

He shook his head and closed his eyes tight, trying to remember. "Uh…Fourteenth and Cherry, no, Chestnut?"

The other transgenic spoke up. "Mogger's?"

Logan opened his eyes quickly. "That's the one."

Luke and Dix nodded and the transgenic took off so fast, that his computer screen barely caught it.

Logan looked down, staring at nothing, but waiting for any noise from his headset.

"Don't worry Logan. Kayla's worked with Max before. She's good."

Logan nodded, but didn't meet their eyes.

This whole situation was bad. This wasn't supposed to happen. It was supposed to be easy.

"Please be okay Max. Help is coming."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA


	10. S03E10 Hot, hot, hot

Alec got out of the van. He walked around to the back and met Lissa there. They opened the doors and helped the others out. The hostage situation hadn't been bad, or at least it could've been much worse. It had been a lot like his time there. The only thing the captured X's had suffered from was mild bruises and being tazered.

They all filed out, forming a big group. They really had overkill. The rescuers outnumbered the hostages two to one.

Half of the rescuers paired up with the injured to help them to MedBay. The other half, or less than half since some of the hostages were really injured and needed to be carried, Alec sent to HQ to report to Dix and Luke.

Everyone cleared out and it was just Alec, Mole, and Maxx. Maxx was carrying a small toolbox over to the first van. Alec wandered over a little to stand closer to Mole.

"So, lovely weather we're having," he stated conversationally. Mole glanced at him, then to the window where the gray sky could be seen.

"It's just peachy."

Alec nodded and stuffed his hands in his jeans' pockets. "So…where's Max?" he asked flippantly.

Suddenly Mole turned to him with the most peculiar expression on his face. It could be considered…mischievous. Alec thought it was mostly scary.

Mole took the cigar out of his mouth and prepared to respond, but just then a loud bang resounded throughout the garage.

Almost at the same time as the bang, a thump was heard from under the van, and a tool clanged to the ground. Maxx rolled out and sat up rubbing his head, looking towards the door to TC where the bang had come from.

Mole grinned at his misfortune.

"Alec!" Alec turned to find a familiar-looking blonde.

"Hey, I know you," he smiled his heart-throb grin. "You're one of my brave heroines."

She didn't smile back. "Max is in trouble."

Maxx stopped rubbing his head and stood up, walking over to the group.

"What? How?" Alec asked immediately.

"I _told_ her," Mole let out, frustrated.

Maxx and Alec's heads both turned to him.

Mole looked up, and froze. "What?" he asked harshly.

"Care to share," Alec commanded with little patience.

Mole rolled his eyes. "When you were gone playing knight-in-shining-armor, our Ice Queen took it upon herself to seduce the senator."

Alec and Maxx's eyes both bugged out simultaneously.

Finally, Alec spoke up. "Why?"

"To gather intel on the whole 'getting caught' pattern we seem to have fallen into. Apparently he's the creator of all our problems."

Alec looked extremely frustrated. "That woman has not one ounce of patience," he said to himself. Then to the others, he added, "We found out how they were doing it. They have thermal scanners that pick up on our slightly higher temperatures. We brought one home for examining."

"Well, I'll be damned," Mole said in slight awe.

Alec gave him a sardonic look. "Yeah, it's great. Let's admire how smart they are."

Mole's eyes focused on Alec's face. "I can appreciate a good idea you know."

"Yeah, while the rest of us transgenics that are out there, risking our lives every day," Alec snapped.

Mole turned to him fully, taking out his cigar. "You implying us _lower _X's don't pull our weight around here."

"No," Alec yelled back, "I'm just saying you wouldn't be so awed if it was your ass getting on the line."

Mole glared at him a long time. "You know, just cuz you're worried about your squeeze, doesn't mean you gotta take it out on the rest of us."

Maxx shook his head, ignoring them both. "If that's the case, then she just went to dinner with an expert on the matter."

"Which is probably why she's in trouble," the blonde added impatiently, giving a pointed look to Mole and Alec who quit glaring at each other.

Maxx sprang into action. He disappeared for a few seconds, and reappeared with some keys. "We're taking Madeline."

They all hopped in: Maxx in the driver's, Alec in the passenger, and the blonde in the back. That left Mole standing in the middle of the garage with his hands at his side, looking confused. He followed the van as Maxx backed it out.

Suddenly Maxx rolled down the window and stuck his head out as he called to Mole, "Be a baby doll and keep an eye on the garage while we're gone. Thanks!"

Mole stood with his mouth open for about a second, before he started towards the van, shaking his finger and shouting.

Maxx, true to character, wasn't unfazed. He just grinned as he pushed a button. The garage doors started closing, cutting Mole off mid-rant. His face was gone, but that didn't stop him from flipping them a very _im_polite finger.

The blonde from the back laughed.

It was quiet a moment before Maxx broke it. "So…where exactly are we going?"

Alec turned in his seat to stare at the blonde. He thought her name was Kaylea.

She sat forward so she was in the middle. "Mogger's restaurant on-"

"Fourteenth and Chestnut," Maxx finished. Alec sent him a glare, which was wasted because he was so focused on the road.

"Kaylea was speaking," he said, rudely. Maxx turned to look at him surprised.

"Actually, it's Kayla. And it _is_ on 14th and Chestnut. ," Kayla corrected. "I help carry his heavy ass to safety and he can't even remember my name."

The last part was mumbled, but he was clearly meant to heart it.

"It was _muscle, _and sorry sweetheart, you didn't really catch me at the best of moments. I had just come out a cell, you know."

Kayla rolled her eyes. "I think I'm beginning to understand Max a little better now."

Alec frowned. "And how is that?"

She smiled seductively and leaned forward. When she was close enough she raised her hand and smacked him upside the head. "That's for getting my name wrong," she answered before he could ask.

Maxx laughed.

Alec turned to him sharply, "'What are _you _laughing at? Keep your eyes on the road."

"But my eyes are-"

"So," Alec interrupted, turning back to Kayla, "Is that all we know about this restaurant?"

"Yes, but I would suggest calling Logan and finding out what kind of security it has and-"

"Wait," Alec said slowly, "Why would Logan know something like that?" Alec asked, even though he didn't really need to. He had a strong feeling he knew where this was going.

"_Because _Alec," she sounded irked, "He was helping her on this. Now would you quit interrupting me…what are you doing now?" she asked when she noticed him take his cell phone out and dial a number.

He didn't answer, but put the phone up to his ear. Every time it rang he thought of a new and creative way he would murder the man.

He didn't pick up until the sixth ring.

"Logan," he answered. He immediately held the phone away from his ear. When it quieted he pulled it back to his ear.

"I know you're upset-" he started, but the yelling started up again on the other end. He held the phone away again, and repeated the process.

"It's not our fault. We didn't even know-"

Logan was sensing a pattern. He slowly pulled the phone away, propped his elbow on the table, and rested his head on his hand.

He frowned when he picked up something. "That's pretty gruesome. _Six _ways?"

A shudder ran down his spine. Manticore didn't play around.

"How were we supposed to know-" Logan was interrupted, _again._

He lost his patience. "_Look Alec," _when there was no response he continued. "She is my friend, you know. Hell, I've know her longer than you have."

He paused.

"No, I'm not rubbing that in. I'm just saying that I'm just as worried, if not more, as you are."

He frowned. "No, we're _not _like that."

The phone was pulled away again as derisive chuckling could be heard.

He looked heavenward, but immediately looked down when he heard a whisper of a noise. It was the headset.

Without having to think about it, he closed the phone and picked up the headset. At first he heard nothing, but then he wished he really had heard nothing.

"Max, tell me that was you taking out the bad guy," he said frantically. His phone vibrated, dancing around on the desk, but he assumed it was Alec. He ignored it and listened.

It was quiet and muffled at first. "Well, I think that worked better than anticipated. Don't you Rolland?"

His blood ran cold at what he heard. The voice was quiet, but it had to be close if the cheap microphone they had used for the "easy" mission could pick it up, practically _kneeling _over her.

It popped into his mind without his permission, and he tried to push it out. She could be…

"Ah, what have we here?"

It was silent a moment, but then there was a loud rubbing noise.

Logan jumped when the voice spoke again. It was crystal clear this time, much louder, and recognizably the senator's.

"You may come pick up your precious _transgenic. _We already got what we needed…for now."

Logan remained quiet, his eyes fixed forward as he tried to convince his self that they wouldn't kill her in a public restaurant.

"We'll even make it easy for you and leave her in the back alley." There was an eerie chuckle. "Just be thankful that White hadn't been around. I fear your precious leader would not have fared as well. A lovely day to you, tah-tah."

There was a loud tap as the ear bud was dropped, before a crunch, and then silence.

He tore his headset off in frustration. He stared at the computer for a second, and then slammed his hands on his desk. The cup of pens bounced and clattered over.

He ran a hand through his messy hair and picked it up.

Alec stopped laughing and spoke, "Of course, how could I forget the 'not-like-that couple'."

He paused and waited for Logan's response.

Nothing.

"Logan?" he called. He took the phone away from his ear and read the screen. He scowled.

Kayla chuckled from the back. "He hung up on you, didn't he?"

Alec didn't answer. He hit the redial button and waited. And waited.

It went to voicemail, so he closed the phone.

"He's not answering," he said, miffed.

Maxx sent him an apologetic look. "Don't worry. It's not your fault."

Alec felt low.

"Well," Kayla said, "I'd hang up on you too."

Alec felt lower.

Maxx thought about it and conceded. "Okay, I see your point. He could have been a _weensy _bit more professional, but can't you see how upset he is."

Alec pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Pfft. He's just got jealousy issues."

"Alright, I was stupid just now, but that's me, Alec-the-screw-up. Could you please just stop talking about me like I'm not here?"

His phone rang, _Candy _by Foxxy Brown. It reminded him of the time he took Max to the strip club to save the mermaid.

He opened it, and tried to be more…professional.

"Why'd you hang up on me-"

He paused.

"Okay, all you had to do was ask. I'll be quiet."

When he finished, Alec's face was skeptic. "You want us to check the back alley? Would it be too much trouble to ask why?"

Alec held up the unoccupied hand defensively. "Fine, fine. You don't have to tell me over the phone. It just doesn't make any sense."

He listened to Logan talk again, and let out a big sigh. "Don't worry. We'll check the alley."

He snapped his phone shut, and looked up. He paused. "What?"

Maxx spoke up for them. "Why would she be in the alley?"

"Look, I know just as much as you do. He wouldn't tell me over the phone."

"But that doesn't make any sense," Kayla added.

"I know," he snapped. "I know it doesn't make any sense, but Logan wants us to check there first, so we will."

"And we take orders from Ordinaries since when?" Kayla asked.

He closed his eyes, not believing what he was about to do. "Listen, he's not just an 'Ordinary', okay? He's a friend. If he thinks Max will be in that alley, then he has a damned good reason." He turned to Maxx just then. "How much longer?"

Maxx caught the street name as they passed. "Well, if we don't run into any traffic, we should be there in about five minutes, two if we don't stop at the lights…why?"

Alec frowned. Something about Logan's attitude seemed off. "I'm not sure…it's just, Logan and Max are used to doing this kind of thing. Not only that, I'd consider them professionals…_both _of them. They're used to getting into tight situations and keeping their heads about them." He met Maxx's eyes to emphasize his last point. "I've never heard him so worried before."

Maxx wordlessly turned back to the road, stamping down on the gas. "Thirty seconds."

The trusty van picked up speed, the front of the vehicle raising up as the weight was transferred to the back. Maxx drove through a stoplight, not even flinching as his precious Madeline passed a car by scant inches.

Kayla grabbed onto the bar, barley keeping herself seated. "Did he say which alley?"

"He said the back one."

"There is no back alley. It butts up against another building, but there are two side ones."

"Okay, Maxx'll drop you off at the first one and me at the second. Sound good?"

They nodded. Kayla sat forward and pointed out the windshield. "That's it," was all she said, before she disappeared to open the back doors of the van.

Maxx tapped the brakes, not even stopping. Kayla jumped out and barely had time to turn and push the doors shut.

She watched the brake the lights flash on again as Alec jumped out further down the road. Maxx pulled the van around, commencing an impressive U that the bulky van should not have been able to achieve. He pulled to the opposite side of the road and parked where he could keep an eye on both entrances to the alley.

Kayla looked back down the road, but Alec had already disappeared. She turned to hers and headed in. When she was ten feet in, it was dark and quiet. The noise from the street was blocked from the towering brick walls and she could now just make out a weird sizzling noise. It sounded like somebody was repeatedly dropping water onto a hot pan, like they do to make sure it's hot enough. There were dumpsters and piles of trash. She saw smoke rising out behind one of the dumpsters, which was odd. It was freezing out.

It was probably just a hobo who built a fire.

She walked forward, peered around, and froze. It was Max. If she didn't have such a rosy hue to her skin, Kayla could have mistaken her for dead. She walked forward. The only injury she could see was a nasty bruise to her forehead. The skin was split and her face was pretty bloody, but Kayla knew head injuries bled a lot. They always looked worse than they were. The only thing Max was in danger of was hypothermia. They, whoever they were, had thrown her body in a pile of trash and left her out in the rain wearing nothing but her underwear.

Kayla unzipped her coat and leaned forward to put it on her. She startled when her hand came into contact with Max's skin. She pulled her hand back and looked at it. She was horrified when she saw that it was now red and blistered. She looked back up at the X5, finally noticing that the smoke was not coming from a fire at all. It wasn't even smoke. As the raindrops came into contacts with Max's skin, they hissed, instantly evaporating into steam.

She stared for a second, before she crouched down, cautiously leaned forward, and covered her with her jacket. She was half afraid it would combust into flames. It didn't. The edges smoked a little, but it wasn't her favorite jacket anyway.

She heard footsteps coming. Transferring her weight back to her heels, she leaned back to look around the dumpster. It was Alec.

"I found her. You better get Maxx to pull as close as he can." She turned back to face her smoldering jacket, and looked back down at her hand. "And bring some blankets."

He looked indecisive, torn between seeing her himself and helping her.

"Now soldier, before they come back and decide they want to keep her," she commanded.

Kayla wasn't sure what had finally kicked him into gear, but she was glad nonetheless when he blurred to the end of the alley. When he reached the end, he slowed down to a dead sprint.

Kayla turned back to Max. It wasn't even thirty seconds before Maxx, bless his heart, was backing his prized possession down the alley. It had roughly six inches of wiggle room on both sides. Maxx stopped it a foot away from the dumpsters. The back doors flew open. Alec hopped down, a blanket in his hand. Kayla could see through to the front where Maxx was taking off his seatbelt and also hopping up.

"Maxie."

Kayla turned around to see Alec standing behind her. He dropped the blanket and rushed around her to get to Max.

"Don't touch her."

He stopped, his hands hovering over her skin.

"Why not?" Maxx asked from behind her. She held up her blistered hand.

Alec stared at it in confusion, before he looked back down at his hands with big eyes. "Why can I feel heat coming from her? What-" he choked on his words. "What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know," Kayla answered calmly. She grabbed the fallen blanket, but looked back up at Maxx. "Do you have any water?"

When he shook his head no, she improvised.

"Gross," Maxx whispered when she soaked the blanket in a puddle. "Do you know how many germs-"

"Maxx," she warned, as she carried the blanket back over to Alec. Alec took it from her and used it to wrap around her. The steam coming off of it was so hot, it left their faces red.

"We have to hurry," Alec said. On three, they picked her up and laid her down in the back. They climbed in. Only Maxx rode in the front. Kayla and Alec were in the back trying to keep her cool with the other blankets they had soaked.

As Kayla reached for the last one, Alec's hand shot out to stop her. She looked up.

He said, "We're going to need that." At her nod, he turned his head slightly to call to Maxx. "Do you know where Logan lives?"

"No, but if you tell me the street, I can find it."

Alec gave him directions as he pulled out his phone and dialed.

Logan answered on the first ring.

"We found her, but we're going to need your doctor buddy. It's bad," he said, his eyes never leaving her.

DADADADADADADA…

Sometime later, Maxx pulled in front of a worn down house. He opened his door and looked up at it skeptically. "This is the place?" he asked Alec.

Alec nodded, already carrying her up the porch. He entered the house and was surprised to find that the doctor had beaten them there and was waiting for them.

"Doctor Sam Carr," he said by lieu of greeting and introduction, though his eyes stayed on Max. "Sorry, I'd shake your hand, but…"

"I get it doc," Alec interrupted, "No formalities needed. Where do you need her?"

The doctor started off, so Alec followed. "Logan told me what he could on the phone."

He opened a door. Logan was inside sitting on a stool next to the bathtub. He was leant over and fiddling with only one of the knobs.

"Cold water will hopefully help bring her core temperature down," Sam Carr explained. He glanced skeptically back at Max. "Though if she's half as hot as Logan described then she should be dead."

Alec shrugged. "It would be hard to exaggerate this, doc."

"Just put her in the tub."

Alec nodded and walked over to where Logan sat. "You might want to move."

"Right, she's still lethal to me," he said, standing out of the way.

Alec frowned. "Oh yeah, that too."

Logan exchanged a puzzled look with the doctor. Alec was oblivious as he bent forward and placed her in the tub, blankets and all.

"I didn't mean for you to put the blankets in with her," Sam called.

Alec turned around. "Well, you didn't exactly give me oven mitts," he said, motioning behind him to where steam could clearly be seen rising up.

A loud hiss ensued, growing in volume until they had to shout to hear each other.

"Sam, how can this be possible?" Logan yelled, trying to find him through the thick fog.

"It can't!" he shouted back, trying to locate the door. Alec found it first. He opened it, allowing the suffocating air out into the hall.

"Holy crow!" came a shout from down the hall.

"Kayla! You and Maxx open any windows you can, and see if you can find a fan in the basement," Alec yelled back.

"Sam!" Logan called from further in the fog. His tone caught Alec's attention. He walked forward along with the doctor to see what was wrong.

When they reached him, he looked up. "Sam, all the water's gone."

"Jesus. Turn the tap on."

"Hey, we found a fan…don't know if it'll work. All we need is a plug-in" a voice called from the doorway.

Alec walked back over to the voice. When he was close enough to see the rusted fan in Kayla's hands, he took on a skeptical expression.

Suddenly, Maxx blurred up behind Kayla. "Uh, guys…we have a problem."

Alec looked heavenward. "God, what could possibly be worse than this?"

"I don't know if God would know," Maxx started, "but the police at the front door want to know what's going on."

Something clattered. "Sam, what was that?"

"I just dropped the thermometer in the tub. Hold on…" There was a silence, before the three transgenics heard some pretty colorful swearing.

"What, what's wrong?" asked Logan anxiously.

"That water's hot enough to boil eggs!"

"But that's impossible, we're running cold water right now as we speak…"

Alec rolled his eyes. "_I'll_ just go get the door then."

He walked out into the living room, and saw the police snooping through the screen door.

Using his body to block the EO computer system, he stepped up to the door and put on his charming smile. "What seems to be the problem officers?"

"You know it's illegal to burn within the city limits without a permit?"

"We got a call from a couple of concerned neighbors reporting a bunch of smoke leaving this house," the other added.

Alec's smile never left his face, though it was tempting. Concerned neighbors, my a –

"Actually officers," Maxx spoke from behind him. "If you take a good whiff, you'll notice that it doesn't smell. It's not smoke. It's water vapor. We're steam cleaning our laundry today."

Alec was slightly impressed. He managed to placate the _lovely _policemen without letting them know their intelligence had been insulted. Honestly, the stuff was billowing out the door at them. If it was smoke, they would have been coughing a fit.

The two stopped and seemed to take a sniff.

The taller one slapped the other on the shoulder. "Well, I'll be," he turned back to Maxx. "You know my wife has one of those things. It's the only way to get my silk boxers white again."

Okay, too much information. Alec raised his eyebrows and looked to the side.

"Though, I don't think we ever have this much steam. Maybe there's something wrong with your converter." He tried to step inside, but Alec took a swift step to block.

"You know what, that's what the dude at the store told us when he sold us the new converter. The repairman just arrived and is putting it in as we speak," he said with his smile back in place.

"Come on Ralph. They have this under control. All we need is their disclosure fee, and we can be on our way."

Alec tilted his head to the side, still smiling. The only sign of anger was a single blink of the eyes. "Disclosure fee?" he repeated through gritted teeth.

The shorter cop smiled wolfishly, "Yes, you know. To placate the concerned neighbors."

Alec started towards them. "More like to line your greedy little pock-"

"Oh, the _disclosure _fee!" Maxx shouted, holding Alec back. "How could we forget? How much does that run nowadays officers?"

"'Bout a hundred."

"That's it. GET OUT!" Alec yelled pointing his finger.

Maxx grabbed him and shoved him back into the living room. "Why don't you go check on that repairman," he said calling back. He turned around to face the officers with a smile on his face while he pulled his wallet out. "He didn't take his meds today. Sorry about that."

The shorter one grumbled. "Yeah, well, I don't appreciate getting slack like that. I'm a good upstanding enforcer of the law. I may just have to run you in for disturbin' the peace."

Maxx looked up from counting his bills. "I see where this is going." He took out an extra fifty and handed the cash over. "How about I give you the bail now, and we save everyone the time and hassle of paperwork that goes with arresting?"

The shorter cop counted it. "Actually bail runs about a hundred these days."

Maxx smiled. "Of course it does."

He held out his last fifty. The cop had to pull to get it out of his hand. When he had his two-hundred, he smiled and said, "Well, a good day to you two. Now I'll let you get back to whatever it is couples do on a fine Saturday morning."

Maxx's eye twitched, but his smile stayed plastered on.

"Well, come on Ralph."

Maxx stayed at the door until he watched the police officers get in their car and drive away. He then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He shut the door and went to find the walking temper who had cost his Madeline a new window.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Maxx leaned over Doctor Beverly Shankar's shoulder as she looked through a microscope.

He had pulled the short straw and been volunteered to run a sample of Max's blood up to the hospital. She had to sneak him in the back so he wouldn't set off any heat scanners.

It had taken them two trips. The first time Maxx had showed up at the hospital, the blood had melted through the plastic tube it was in. He had to drive all the way back and get another sample, which they placed in a Crockpot. He even brought oven mitts, just in case. It was a bit excessive, but Logan wasn't a big coffee drinker so the man didn't own a single mug.

Needless to say, the second time he showed up at the hospital, no blood had been spilled. He did feel a little ridiculous carrying a Crockpot into the hospital with his oven mitts. The only thing he was missing was an apron. He didn't let his embarrassment stop him though. He ran with it. Whenever someone gave him a weird look, he would say that he had cooked dinner for his wife. They would smile, and coo and awe at him, and then turn to whoever was next to them at the time and say, "Now why can't I have a lover like that?"

Doctor Beverly Shankar had just shaken her head when he shot her a cheeky grin.

They made it to the lab section of the hospital without a hitch.

When she had taken a sample out and placed it on a glass slide, Maxx felt like hitting himself in the forehead. Of course it wouldn't melt through glass. Alec had been the one to insist on the Crockpot. He should have known.

"Do you mind?"

Maxx shook his head, focusing on Doctor Shankar.

"You're literally breathing down my neck," she said with a small smile.

"Oh," he automatically took to exaggerated steps back. He looked up at her with a sheepish grin. "Sorry."

"No problem. Do you know Logan's number?" she asked as she bent back over the microscope.

"Um, no."

"That's okay, just hit redial. He should be the last person I called," she said waving her hand in the general direction of the phone. She was frowning now.

Maxx walked over to the phone, picked it up, and hit the redial button. Well, he knew his number now.

He held the receiver up to his ear. Logan answered.

"Hey Logan buddy. How's Max?"

He listened a minute, and nodded. His eyes darted over to the doctor. "Actually I'm not sure why I called you."

"Put him on speaker," Shankar instructed.

"Hold on Logan, I'm putting you on speaker." Maxx pushed a button.

"Okay, I'll do the same thing," came Logan's voice though the speakers.

"Logan, this is Shankar speaking. Do you know who injected Max with this?"

"No. Senator McKinley was in charge of the whole ordeal, but other than that, I wouldn't know."

"Would you happen to know what was in it?"

"Not a clue."

"Well, besides being hot, what are her symptoms?"

There was a silence, as they, presumably, checked her over.

It was Kayla's voice that answered. "She's unconscious."

Shankar waved her hands. "Anything else?"

"Not that we know of," Alec started.

"She seemed kind of delirious at the end when I was listening to her," Logan added. "She wouldn't answer me. It was almost as if she didn't recognize me."

She nodded, as if that was what she was looking for. "Now, how long ago was she given this?"

"Uh…I would say…anywhere from one and a half to two hours ago. Why? Have you found anything?"

Doctor Shankar nodded, though they couldn't see her. "Well, it's just that I'm looking at her blood right now, and as we speak her DNA is twirling and twisting under the microscope. If I had a normal version of her blood, I could be positive, but I think that this chemical, whatever it is, is changing her whole genetic make-up."

There was a heavy silence.

Doctor Sam Carr spoke up from the other end of the line. "But that can't be right. That's-"

"Impossible," Doctor Shankar finished.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"Yes," Senator McKinley said with triumph. "It worked exactly as it was supposed to."

The scientist, uncertain, let out a shaky smile.

"And you let her go?"

Senator McKinley looked ready for this answer. He wasn't a politician for nothing. "If we had kept her, we would have given her more of a chance to escape. The chemical took effect like it was supposed to, but we are still unsure as to what it will do to her as far as physical capabilities are concerned."

"Well, how do you plan to take care of this problem when you get her again?"

"We won't pick her up until we have the correct dosage ready. This was just a trial run, an experiment if you will. We gave her only a fraction of the dosage we plan to administer when we are ready."

The female's eyebrows nearly disappeared in her hair. She looked back at the screen, nodding at it. "And this is what the reaction was with only a small dose?"

The senator grinned. "Exactly why we won't need to worry about her escaping when we have the dose ready."

The woman pushed rewind on the remote and watched the film again in regular mode this time.

The figure in the screen was frantic, practically crawling up the walls, pulling at her hair. She paused it when the figure suddenly dropped to the ground, hitting her head against the floor. For most people, this would be something disturbing to see.

"When will you have the dose ready?"

The scientist spoke up weakly. "It takes time to mix and create the correct molecular bindings that your chemical requires. The whole compound of the substance is so complex, it's unlike anything I have seen before-"

The senator replied over him, "We'll need about two weeks, give or take."

The scientist looked incredulous, but didn't say anything when they both gave him a deadly look.

"Well, senator, I certainly hope you know what you are doing. F'nes tol."

"F'nes tol," he said back. Ducking his head, grabbing the scientist, and politely ducking out.

The woman turned back to the screen, pushing play.

"Oh 452, I wouldn't wish your future on my worst enemy," she paused and smiled maliciously. "Too bad you're just an animal."


	11. S03E11 Lapse in Judgement

Alec's eyebrows were raised as he took in the bathroom. He turned to look at Maxx long enough to ask, "This is the great idea to keep the police away?"

Maxx gave an energetic nod.

Alec turned back to take in the room again. Finally, he made the oh so refined observation, "It looks illegal."

They had rigged up some ungodly contraption, courtesy of Maxx, who had apparently excelled in Practical Uses 101.

Alec had thought the class was stupid. Who seriously needed to know how to name fifty different ways to use a fork for battle field and undercover purposes? Alec didn't. If he didn't have a gun or a knife, then he would use his hands. He didn't have millions of government tax money invested in him for nothing. What was some utensil going to do to save his life against fully-armed, highly-trained men?

Maxx could probably tell you.

Okay, he was being a little biased. He had once heard Biggs tell him he knew a guy in Unit 3, who had a girlfriend in Unit 5, who had been told from a friend in Unit 8 that someone in Unit 4 had escaped from a hostage situation with nothing but a pencil that a guard had accidentally dropped.

The pencil had not been sharpened.

Of course, Unit 4 had been Alec's unit, and Alec hadn't heard of anyone from his group mention anything like that. He assumed it was all scuttle-butt.

Maxx swore he was goods friends with the guy.

Right.

Either way, the system Maxx had set up _was_ pretty brilliant in its simplicity. Simple in that everything he had used was found in the bathroom. That was about as simple as it got, though. Alec didn't fully understand how it worked. He did know what it did. It had four, dome-shaped tents, each in varying levels in the air and varying temperatures. They circulated the air, shuffling the vapors through the system until they dripped down into a funnel that was conveniently placed over the sink, where the water was returned back through the drains.

Maxx called it, and this can be quoted, "The Water Cycler 4000."

Whatever, it worked.

That was good news for the infamous Eyes Only.

Apparently his computer system was a little particular in that it didn't appreciate getting rained on…Alec had a good chuckle at that one. Never before had he heard such a feminine scream from a full-grown man. And the way he had grabbed his shaggy hair and bugged his eyes…classic.

Alec leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, grinning as he remembered it.

Dr. Carr entered the bathroom, closing the door behind him after giving a brief nod to Alec. Alec frowned.

About two minutes later the door to the bathroom opened again, letting out only a small billow of steam, before Doctor Carr closed it. His eyes were downcast, deep in thought.

Alec's eyes followed him. He cleared his throat subtly. It still startled the doctor, whose head snapped up to meet the relaxed eyes of the transgenic.

"Well doc, what's the update?"

"Beverly Shankar is still trying to figure out what exactly the chemical was meant to do. Certain components of the substance seem to be, and this apparently is possible, recoding her DNA…" he trailed off as he looked deep in thought. He then looked back up and met Alec's gaze. "Are you familiar with junk DNA?"

Alec bobbed his head back and forth. "Somewhat. They liked to keep our horizons broadened in all areas back at Manticore. Junk DNA is the useless bits in your genes that have no purpose."

Sam nodded. "Yes, every person on this planet that I know of has them. Ordinaries, Familiars, and even transgenics have a least a portion of junk DNA. Every person but Max. Each and every strand of her genetic make-up is programmed to do _something."_

"What is it programmed for?" Alec asked, easily keeping up.

The doctor shrugged. "We don't know. It would be impossible to tell without extensive observation and rather…painful experimentation."

"What will happen to Max?" Logan asked, joining them in the hall.

"It's too early to tell. We don't have enough information to positively conclude anything at this point."

Logan stared at him through narrowed eyes, reading him. "Off the record Sam," he started.

The doctor smiled. "Is anything involving her ever _on _the record?"

"Touché," Logan said with a tiny quirk. "But with your vast history and medical knowledge, what do you _think _that chemical was meant to do?"

He was silent as he gathered his thoughts, trying to word it as carefully as possible. "Doctor Shankar and I are both under the belief that, whoever created this chemical was trying to figure out what exactly her DNA can do. It doesn't matter now though, and this is the truly scary part: Whatever the chemical was intended to do, it didn't do it. Her body is returning back to normal and as far as we can tell, no permanent changes have been done."

"You think this was some sort of…experiment?" Alec asked, his face hard.

"A trial run," the doctor confirmed. "If these people were to get a hold of her again, you can count on the dose being much larger."

Logan frowned. "You saw what happened this time. Would she even make it if she were injected with more?"

Doctor Carr didn't answer, but his eyes said everything.

Alec cleared his suddenly tight throat. "I'm worried about now. How long before she's back to bossin' me around?"

Sam flipped back into doctor mode. "Right now she's down to a temperature of one hundred and five. She should be at her normal temperature by tonight," he paused, before turning to Logan. "You mentioned that before she was exhibiting signs of dementia and memory loss?"

Logan nodded, "When I was trying to talk to her she wouldn't answer me. She finally told me to shut the hell up because Max wasn't there and I was giving her a headache." He stopped and then frowned. "What are you trying to say, Sam? Are you implying that she'll have amnesia?"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

It was impossible trying to concentrate on their computers right now. They really were working on something. They just couldn't remember what at the moment.

A lot of the transgenics had left when the call came. Their calm gentle giant of a friend was downright scary when he wasn't being so, well, calm and gentle. The only ones left in headquarters were Mole, Dix, and Luke.

"Josh-wa want see Little Fella NOW!" he howled into the phone. And well, Joshua was here too, of course.

Dix and Luke shared a nervous glance.

Mole didn't even flinch from where he was leaned over cleaning his gun.

"No, you listen to me Fake _Max_, Josh-wa want see Little Fella now!"

There was a heavy silence while the large K-9 listened to the poor soul on the other end of the phone.

"No! You! You! You not _listening! _You need little more rabbit in your cocktail-"

_Snap._

Mole's interest was finally piqued enough to look up from his barrel.

Joshua was looking down with a frown at the cell phone in his hand. "Why not work?" he asked with great confusion.

Mole, who was now beside him, also peering down at the two pieces of phone, let out a snort. "Good one, Wolfie. You broke it."

Joshua's eyes suddenly got round, right as a blue-eyed transgenic with blond shaggy hair strolled into the room. He raised a hand when he saw Joshua and smiled. "Hey Big Boy, I was wonderin' if you were done with my phone yet. I need to call my buddy. His pad's on the South end. I don't feel like walkin' all the way down there in this rain."

"T-Track want phone back?" Joshua asked slowly.

Mole smirked and looked back down at Joshua's hands. Joshua was frozen for a moment, before he quickly put his hands behind his back.

Track perked up. "Say, what was that?"

Mole let out a reptilian grin. "Your ticket to a free shower. Have fun walkin' to the South Side, blondie."

Joshua, in a panic, elbowed him. Mole let out an, "_oomph," _as he sailed across the room, falling into a chair, his shotgun slung diagonally across his lap, and his cigar miraculously surviving the flight.

Track was confused, Mole was disgruntled, Dix and Luke were amused, and Joshua was oblivious to how hard he had actually hit Mole.

It was awkward a moment before Joshua started laughing, loudly. "Mole, you so funny," he said, his eyes fixed on the blond, "Mole likes jokes. You like jokes, Track? Josh-wa know good joke."

Track frowned. "Joshua," he started slowly.

"What was THAT?" Joshua asked, pointing behind Track to the hall.

Track didn't even turn around. "You know, I'm getting the feeling that-"

Track's sentence was cut off as Joshua slammed the door in his face. He locked it and ran back to where Dix and Luke sat, amused grins on their faces. He threw the pieces down on the desk between them.

"Fix it!" he pleaded with a wild look in his eye.

Dix and Luke's smiles left their faces as they were suddenly a part of the drama, rather than entertained onlookers.

"Joshua," Luke started out, "We can't just fix-"

"You fix anything! Joshua hear Little Fella say so. You , you, YOU 'BAD-ASS'!" he cried.

Dix tried this time. "I think Max was exaggerating a little-"

"But-but, but Mole say you make BVB player out of can-opener!"

Dix, ever the rationalist, attempted to apply this in terms that Joshua would understand. "Yes, but you didn't hand us a can opener, now did you?"

Joshua hesitated. His shoulders slumped forward and he looked down.

Luke and Dix shared a relieved look that they had gotten him off of their back, but froze when Joshua's head snapped up, his eyes bright. He stood up, running to the door.

"Where you goin' now, Wolfie," asked Mole, who was still a little miffed at being tossed around.

"Get can-opener for Dix and Luke!" Joshua shouted over his shoulder as he opened the door.

He ran right past Track, who was frozen at suddenly being addressed. "Don't worry Track! Little Fella hurt, and Fake Max not listen, and everything _fubar_, but Josh-wa get you phone back," Joshua reassured excitedly as he strode out of the room.

Track's mouth was hanging open a little as he tracked Joshua's back until he turned the corner out of sight. His eyes went back to the other people in the room. They scrambled. Mole picked up his gun again, scrubbing with renewed vigor. Luke and Dix, as one, swiveled around in their chairs and started typing furiously. The blonde's intelligent blue eyes narrowed. He stepped into the room.

"Okay, I'll bite. What does Joshua need a can-opener for, and what in Renfro's name does that have to do with me getting my phone back?"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Sam nodded, "When she wakes up she could very well have retrograde amnesia."

"There's more than one kind of amnesia?" Logan asked.

"Yes, there's Anterograde amnesia. She would remember everything that happened to her up until the damage, but not be able to retain new memories."

"Like 5o First Dates," Alec added. Dr. Carr and Logan both paused and turned to him.

Alec held up his hands. "What? It was one of Brain's movies, and I was bored."

Logan continued to give him an odd look, almost sizing him up, while the doctor smiled and nodded. "Exactly like that movie, but like I said before. In all likelihood, since before she was knocked out, she was showing signs of not remembering Logan, she will probably have the former."

"So she won't remember us?" Alec asked to clarify.

He shook his head, "No, she won't, but it shouldn't be anything too serious, and if so, it will more than likely be temporary."

Suddenly Maxx appeared in the middle of them, looking down at the phone in his hand with a small frown. "I think Joshua hung up on me."

Everyone stopped and stared at him blankly, slightly thrown off by his random outburst, before his words finally registered.

"Joshua wouldn't do that." "You _told _him?" Logan and Alec said at the same time. Their eyes glanced sideways to each other and met briefly.

"Maxx," Logan started diplomatically, "Joshua would never hang up on you. He may seem scary, but he is the most gentle and polite person I know, transgenic _or _ordinary."

Alec just crossed his arms, leaned back against the wall, and fixed Maxx with a knowing stare. "Let me guess. You told him about Max."

Logan frowned.

Maxx finally looked up. "Well, it's not my fault. I thought HQ should be updated about their missing leader."

Alec leant forward. "And you couldn't have told Dix or Luke, or hell, Mole even?"

"Look, I called my friend Track, first and he handed the phone off. I had no way of knowing that-"

"You're right! You didn't know. You should have left it to the Second-in-Command. They have those for a reason you know, or have you already forgotten what little you learned from Mommy Manticore?"

Logan stepped forward. "Alec, I think you're being a little harsh. There was no harm done-"

"You're outta line Alec," Kayla said bluntly, not even bothering to honey-coat.

Alec turned on her. "Yeah? Did you tell him where we were?" he asked Maxx. At Maxx's hesitant nod he turned back to face Logan. "_You _know how much Josh cares about Max. Do you think he's going to stay rational and calm and wait for us to keep him updated?"

Logan's face changed as understanding dawned.

Alec noticed, so he redirected to the other transgenics. "He's not. He's gonna come looking for her. He knows where this place is. He can find it easily…it's the sector police and border patrol I'm worried about."

Maxx groaned.

"Shit," Kayla summed up.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The first thing she noticed was that she was submersed in water. The second thing she noticed was that she had a headache.

She opened her eyes slowly.

Billows of fog rolled around above her head.

She sat up gradually and looked around. The sound of running water was almost deafening. With shaky hands, she reached forward and turned the tap, cutting the water off. Her head mentally sighed and the pounding pain lessened. Loud voices caught her attention. They were so loud she jumped and looked around for the source, but nobody was in the room with her. Satisfied that she was safe for the moment, she listened. She deciphered what they were talking about, but then wished she hadn't. They were talking about Max again. Barely able to resist rolling her eyes, she put her hands on the sides of the tub and pushed herself up.

She almost hit her head on the odd contraption. Her eyes followed it, watching how it manipulated the fog, herding it in until the end where it dripped out water.

She shook her head. It was unimportant.

Her eyes automatically flew to the window.

Foreign territory. Approximately four potential threats, unknown intentions.

Escape and evade.

When the Pulse hit, people lost everything. Biggest cities were hit the hardest, but isolated areas had never given him much luck either. His experience had been that they were corrupted just as bad, run by the rednecks with the most firepower. The only difference between the cities and the country was the body count…and food. That was one thing that anyone could say. Out in the rural there was always more food.

That couldn't be said for this little rustic town, though. The people had been very frugal, almost Amish, even before the Pulse. When everything was wiped out, they hadn't been hurt that much. Life went on normal for them. There was no panic, no hysterics for food, no worries about water supply, and no there was no corruption.

It had been so long since anyone had been innocent, though he hadn't remembered that until last week. His whole life had been full of people scheming, using, or hunting him. He almost hated what he had to do.

"Adam Thompson," he repeated. His hands were splayed out on the counter as he leaned over to watch her filling the sheet out.

She suddenly stopped writing and looked up. He couldn't help it. He tensed. "Adam Thompson? You work for Buddy?"

He smiled suddenly, not even having to fake it, his relief was so great. "Yes I do, ma'am."

Her cheeks tinted an attractive pink as she smiled. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Well, ma'am, I do hope it's all been good," he said with a boyish grin.

She grinned right back at him. "Now I know all about you country boys. Not a lick of innocence, not one of y'all."

She handed him over the slip. "This lets you use it for the next half hour. If you need more time than that, you'll have to come back tomorrow. We have a limit, since the whole community uses it."

He smiled, even though this would greatly slow his plans. "Thank you."

He gave her a mischievous wink and took the slip as he turned to walk away.

Shelves upon shelves of books created little stalls of privacy in between the stacks. Along the left side there was a magazine rack and a couple of cushioned chairs positioned in front of a large window. The sunlight basked in and cast a heated shine off the polished surface of the wood table.

This was the pride of the town here. They took great pleasure in having one of the few libraries in the States.

He moved one of the heated chairs around until it was facing one side of the table. It gave him a view of both the window and the door. No one else was in the library, but the desk clerk and he was sure he didn't have to worry about her. He grabbed the pad and pencil and started. The first thing he wrote down was numbers. Fourteen digits each, phone numbers. When he was finished, he had a list of nine different numbers. He went through again, crossing out the first. He knew where she was. He crossed out only one more, knowing for a fact that she was dead. That left him seven numbers.

Seven numbers. And some of them hadn't answered when he put the call out in years. He put those to the bottom of the list.

Seven people, eight if he counted her. Nine if he counted himself. There had been fifteen of them back at Manticore.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, keeping it there as he leaned forward and closed his eyes. They should have never left Manticore. He couldn't protect them all like this. It was impossible.

Splitting up had been the only way they had survived this long, but the rules had changed. She had changed them. They were no longer in hiding, on the run. Transgenics seemed to be migrating to Seattle. Everyone knew about them. Everyone would know to look for a barcode, not just the people after them. Hiding would be harder.

Rounding up unit now would be the safest thing for them. He shook his head, letting a sardonic smirk cross his lips. Max always got what she wanted.

He dialed the first number.

"Hello?"

He let out a breath. "Jondy, it's Zack. The rules have changed. You need to go to ground."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Hot.

She was so hot.

And thirsty.

And lost.

She was hiding in an alley, scoping out the scene in front of her. There were tall fences guarded by men wearing bullet proof vests and helmets. The words 'sector police' stood out in her mind, but there was no way to know if it was just something she made up.

Above her about fifteen feet, the broken ladder of an emergency escape hung. It was the best option she had, but she hadn't jumped to it just yet. Ten minutes had passed with her trying to figure some other way to get passed the fence. Nothing had popped into her mind, so far. Her eyes looked back up to the last ring of the ladder, and then followed it further up to where it was attached. The thing was rusted and brown. She really didn't want to grab a hold of it, and then have it break off. She wasn't entirely sure if she had gotten faster, but the last she remembered, there was no way she could fall back down, get out from underneath the metal, and blur away before the police showed up to investigate.

She turned to double back and find a different building to scale when she saw someone…some_thing _at the end of the alley that made her freeze. Her heart jumped.

She knew what was standing at the end of the alley.

A Nomlie.

She was frozen with terror. Ben had warned them about the things in the basement. His voice echoed all around her.

_They'll drain you of most of your blood and put you down there with them. With the Nomlies. They'll keep you as prisoner of war and eat you little by little forever._

Suddenly the thing at the end of the alley tilted its head.

"Max?"

Her eyes widened as it took a hesitant step forward.

"Little fella, what wrong?"

She didn't wait for it to respond. Her legs bent at the knees, low. It wouldn't do to not make the jump the first time. Then she burst upward in a blast of energy and muscle, flying up through the air. Her jump was excessive and took her much higher than the ladder. She didn't even need the rusted scaffolding the ladder lead up to. The momentum took her clear up to the top of the building. It was a thirty foot jump, but she didn't have time to dwell on it. Before she landed, she was twisting in the air, spinning back around, touching down into a fighting stance, and waiting. But it didn't follow her.

Air she hadn't known she was holding escaped her lungs. Cautiously, she went back to the edge and looked down. There was nothing down there. The Nomlie was gone.

She shook her head.

With renewed vigor, she continued on. Seeing that thing had only cemented her beliefs. They shouldn't be out of the basement. They should be contained in their cells. Something was seriously wrong if they were running loose.

She had to get back to Manticore now. She had to find out why the Nomlies were running around.

She had to tell them something had gone wrong with her mission. Something had happened, because she couldn't remember anything about the last decade or so of her life.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

They were on speaker phone with HQ trying to figure out how to keep Joshua out of trouble.

"Are you sure that you can keep him busy for a while?" Logan asked.

Luke's voice came back through the phone. "Yeah, he broke Track's phone when he…got upset with Maxx."

"He _what?" _came a voice from the background. There was a pause, and then they heard, "Maxx, you owe me a phone."

Maxx winced. "Sorry, man."

Mole's gravelly drawl came over the line then. "Anyway, he shot outta here about ten minutes ago."

"When he comes back we can call you again and Alec can talk to him," Dix added.

Everyone just about burst out of their skins when Joshua burst through the door.

"Little fella!"

The other end of the line went silent, and everyone around the phone paused, shocked. Most of their eyes landed on Alec, who shrugged and stepped up to the not so calm giant.

Before he could do more than open his mouth, Joshua had grabbed him by the shoulders, pulled him forward and started shaking him. "Max!"

Alec raised his shoulders up, squeezing his hands up between Joshua's arms, trying to placate him. "It's alright, big guy. She's in the other-"

"NOO!" Joshua yelled in his face. He started shaking him again. "Little fella NOT in room. Little fella not in _house_. Little fella walkin street, jumping big buildings, flying through sky! Little fella not know big fella. Everything FUBAR!"

He let go of Alec waving his arms around. One hand held what could be considered can opener. An _ancient _can opener.

Vaguely he heard Maxx ask, "Is that _my _can opener?" But Alec ignored it, instead choosing to focus on the more immediate threat rather than Maxx's fear of losing his precious kitchen utensil.

Alec cleared his throat and wisely took a step back. And then five more.

He was back even with the group, but still wasn't sure of his safety. He wasn't sure if he would feel safe in another room. He was thinking of distancing himself a state, or two.

Joshua's breathing was the only noise.

Alec frowned. "Do you hear that?"

Kayla tilted her head. "No."

Alec nodded, "Exactly."

Maxx's eyes widened, "The water's stopped."

Alec glanced to Logan and Dr. Carr. "I don't suppose you two turned the water off?"

They shook their heads. Dr. Carr spoke up. "She was better, but we were letting the bath fill a last time—"

The three transgenics took off before he finished talking. Alec got there first. He slammed the door open, banging it against the wall, knocking half of Maxx's water vapor contraption down.

"Not good," he heard Kayla say from behind him.

No. It was most definitely _not _good.

Alec turned back to the living room. He walked right up to Joshua, grabbed his shoulders, and shook him.

"Focus, big guy."

Joshua's wild eyes stilled on Alec's face.

"Can you focus?"

Joshua nodded.

"Good. Now, where did you see Max?"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Luke looked over at Dix, but it was Track who voiced the question.

"Do you think they know they're still on the phone?"

Mole shrugged, but that was all the answer he offered.

Track didn't let up. "Still, don't you feel like we're eavesdropping?"

"Nah," Mole said. "She's our leader." He turned his head to Dix and Luke. His eyes flashed to the computer, and then settled back on their faces. They seemed to understand what he wanted because they turned in their seats and set to work, fingers flying.

Track's eyes followed everything, taking it all in while they got to work. Boxes of different views and web pages started popping up on the half dozen or so computers mounted in front of them like a picture wall.

"Pulling up grid systems," Luke said, the keys typing a song.

"Accessing cable lines," Dix offered.

"Gaining clearance into the local surveillance in the area," Luke added.

"Starting a webring of catch phrases to monitor local police scanners," Dix chimed.

"Checking the news databases," Luke said with a flick of his eyes in Dix's direction.

Dix kept typing. "Hacking all video feed from the hoverdrone sys-"

Luke slammed a hand down on the table. "You just had to do it. You just _had _to outdo me."

Dix's eyes were wide as he turned to face Luke. They stared at each other for a moment or two.

"Will the hoverdrone thingy help us?" Mole asked, threateningly.

Luke looked abashed. "Yes."

"Then can it."

Suddenly they were back to typing a storm, things popping up on their monitors too fast for an Ordinary to follow.

"Uhh…" Luke said distractedly, his eyes flicking rapidly between the screens, "We're gonna need a team to help us monitor all the feeds and interpret the data."

"You heard him, blondie," Mole said without even looking at Track. Mole was back by the phone, keeping two ears open, tracking both the HQ conversation and the one over the phone. He turned in Dix and Luke's direction. "Last known location, Clem Street and Harris. About fifteen minutes ago."

Track folded his arms. "You know, I am more than just a pretty face."

Mole snorted. "Yeah, you're modest, too."

Track glared. "I'm saying that if you give me a recent enough location, that I can track her."

"They got it covered. They got Wolfie with them. He's their own personal search dog. He's got a nose."

"So do I," he said. "I have also have rabbit for hearing and owl for sight. They call me Track for a reason."

"Well they just had a party with your cocktail." Mole turned to him finally. He gave him an assessing look. "Alright, head to the last location. If Dix and Luke get an update, we'll let you know."

Track cleared his throat. "I'm going to need a cell phone. And if possible, something of Max's, something she's had recently."

Mole looked around, and then pointed. "She sat in that chair when she talked to Logan."

Track grimaced. "Anything that only a few people touched?"

"You can try her bike. It's on your way out if she didn't take it," Luke offered.

He nodded. "And a phone?"

"Improvise," Mole said with a grin.

Track cast him a scowl before turning out of the room. A few moments later, a small group of transgenics filed into the room and lined in front of Mole.

"Sir, the transgenic known as Track sent us here with orders to report to you."

Mole took the cigar out of his mouth. "At ease."

They clasped their hands loosely behind their backs and stepped their feet apart exactly twelve inches.

"You're here to help watch surveillance. We're tracking X5-452, Max, Ice Queen, pick your name."

A few of them grinned.

"Any questions?"

"No, sir!" they chorused.

"Good. Luke and Dix will tell you what to do."

Most of them walked up to Dix and Luke for instructions, but one male stayed behind.

"Permission to speak freely, sir."

Mole speculated. "Permission granted," he drawled.

The soldier met his eye. "Track told me to tell you that a new cell phone would be given to me in order to replace the one he commanded."

Mole's mouth dropped open, and he almost, _almost _lost his cigar. He stared for a second, and then laughed. "He did, did he?"

"Yessir."

"Don't you worry. Blondie will be in charge of procuring you a new phone if yours breaks in battle."

The transgenic grinned. "I was hoping you would say that, sir. He needs to sweat every now and then. His stool's too high."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Max found a motorcycle that would do the job quite nicely. She was immensely confused about everything right now. The outside world was nothing like the land of "milk and honey" she had heard the guards describing it as. It was more like a run down dump.

And she was so much bigger than she last remembered being. With her nice, little analytical soldier mind, she knew that she was probably suffering from a concussion and memory loss.

Which the best thing for her right now was to quit asking questions...

...and just get back to base.


	12. S03E12 Homeward Bound

Ten minutes. It had taken them ten minutes to get grouped and go out. A lot of that precious time had been spent arguing.

Alec's eyes glanced around the alley. In the end, they had all agreed to a plan; albeit, some were more reluctant than others. Logan "decided", more like ordered, to stay at the house along with Kayla to give them a base, while Dr. Carr was in the van with Maxx at the end of the alley. When it was all said and done, Alec knew that they were relatively safe from prying eyes. Maxx would say something if he saw anyone heading this way, but there was something about bringing Joshua out in the open that went against Alec's instincts.

Alec's eyes flew back to the figure that was hunched over on the ground, sniffing with his nose two inches from the wet pavement.

Alec's eyebrows shot up. "You uh…you getting anything there, buddy?"

Joshua's chest let out a low rumbling growl in affirmation. He continued crawling around, balanced on the balls of his feet and the heels of his palms. He didn't seem to be paying any attention to what he was sniffing either. Or, at least, Alec hoped that was the case. Alec's face crunched up in distaste as he watched Joshua take a long whiff right next to some questionable looking goo.

Alec's eyebrows quirked again as he shook his head and just barely suppressed a shiver. He hunched his shoulders and shoved his hands deep inside his jacket pockets. He could see his breath in the air and his zip-up coat had nothing on his leather jacket. He bounced on the balls of his feet and looked around again.

A sudden movement in his peripherals brought his eyes back to Joshua. The dog man was now moving at a frantic pace; his motions deliberate and directional.

Alec perked up, coldness forgotten, bringing his face out of the collar of his jacket. "Whatcha got there?"

Joshua followed up the brick wall a little way, taking two short sniffs, and then frowned. Alec shifted.

"Max," the big guy finally stated.

Alec frowned, confused. "That's good. You found her."

Joshua cocked his head to the side. "Max but not."

Alec gave him a blank look. "Max but not," he murmured. "What the…you know what, it doesn't matter. Is it Little Fella or not?"

"It Little Fella."

"You sure?"

Joshua gave a low growl.

Alec held his hands up defensively. "Okay, okay, just checking." He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Maxx's number. Logan would be able to hear everything from his computer. Maxx answered. "Yeah, this is the place. Follow from the street," Alec said, watching as Joshua continued sniffing up the wall until he couldn't reach any more. "It looks like we're going topside."

Alec closed his phone and looked up. There was a fire escape about fifteen feet up. The last rung on the ladder was rusted and wet. "How did ya get up there, Maxie?" he murmured to himsel

"Little fella fly," Joshua said.

Alec glanced at him with raised eyebrows. He clapped his hands together, brushing the comment off. "Anyway, I don't suppose ya wanna go first?" He indicated towards the ladder.

Joshua just looked at him calmly. Alec gave a half grimace. "Right," he said as he looked around. Well… if Max could do it, Alec was sure he could too. He backed up till his back hit the wall before he crouched down. "Alright, on three. One…two…" he leaned farther forward, "…three…"

He glanced back up at the really high rusted ladder with trepidation. "…four."

A hand came down on his shoulder. Alec jumped.

"What wrong?"

"Holy…don't sneak up on me like that big guy. We gotta hang a cowbell around your neck or something…whew."

Joshua studied Alec's face. "Medium fella scared."

Alec scoffed. "No. I'm respecting the ladder. I don't want it to drop me cause I didn't respect it."

Joshua's eyes widened. "Joshua don't want to drop."

Alec gave a satisfied nod. "Then you gotta respect it."

"Joshua respect ladder. Joshua respect ladder lots."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure ya do big guy," Alec said, crouching back down. "Okay, on the count of three. One…two…threeeeeeeee."

Suddenly a blur of color flew through the air. Alec's eyes followed it up...up...up…until it came to a stop on the last rung of the ladder. The ladder groaned and swayed ominously. Alec watched with disbelieving eyes as watched Joshua quickly shimmied up the remaining rungs until he was on the landing. Joshua then jumped up to grab the ledge of the roof where he pulled himself up and out of sight. After a few seconds, his beaming face popped up over the wall.

"It okay Alec," he called back down, "Just respect ladder and it all be good."

Alec's gaze dropped back down to the worn fire escape that was groaning even without the considerable weight of his much larger companion. It trembled and shook.

Alec's eyes widened. "Oh boy." He crouched, slightly shaking his head. There was no time for a countdown. He darted across the alley, hopped up onto the dumpster, crouched, and shot up into the air, his hands outstretched for the ladder. He made it…barely. His heart was racing as he pulled himself up and made quick work of the rest of the ladder.

By the time he got onto the landing, the grating and groaning noises were almost deafening to his adrenaline-ehanced hearing. He crouched down and jumped at the same time the floor gave out with a loud clang. It threw off his momentum and Alec was still on his upward propel when he realized that he was going to come up short. The top of the ledge came within inches of his grasp. His fingers scraped the wall, but it wasn't enough. His momentum ran out. He slowly started to go back down, gaining speed at an alarming rate.

His fall was broken, along with maybe his wrist, when Joshua's big hand shot out and grasped his wrist. His sudden stop brought him forward; he got very up close and personal with the brick wall, making a solid thud. Alec almost would have rather landed in the garbage. It was soft.

Joshua quickly pulled him up onto the roof.

Alec fell back against the wall, panting heavily. He rubbed his wrist while he caught his breath. Surprisingly, it wasn't broken.

"Medium fella not respect the ladder."

Alec gave the dog man the glare the comment deserved. "I'll teach you how to respect the ladder," he mumbled.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Dix's eyes flew as they moved across his computer screen. He was at his element typing in his renowned hyper speed. Usually the sound of his keys was enough to drown out the other sounds of HQ, but he had these codes memorized backwards and forwards. He didn't need to look at the screen to hack into a different surveillance camera;and he usually kept himself busy by watching what was happening on another screen. But with the group of transgenics Track had sent to help out with the tracking. They were crowding him. The only other screen he had up, hadn't done anything in ten minutes.

So that left his eyes and mind wandering, while his fingers expertly hacked into a traffic camera.

Wandering minds aren't hard to sidetrack in the first place. So when he noticed a movement from the corner of his eye, it was inevitable that he would turn and look.

It was Luke. He was sitting faced away with his back hunched over the table; his arms moving out at the elbows.

Dix paused typing and frowned at his friend's back. Dix decided that maybe they did end up putting a little feline into his "cocktail" when he found his curiosity leading his actions as he rolled himself behind Luke and leaned to peer over his shoulder. Luke was holding a pair of tweezers and what Dix would have guessed to be a knitting needle. He was maneuvering them around in a dissected pile of junk on the table. There was something about that particular pile of junk that looked oddly familiar, like maybe it was something important.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he asked finally when he couldn't figure it out on his own.

His question didn't even give him pause. Luke distractedly picked the biggest hunk of metal up and turned it in the light, this way and that, while he looked for something.

Dix's eyes widened in recognition. "Isn't that the scanner Alec brought back when they rescued those X5's from that transgenic jail?"

"Yep," Luke said, popping the "p." He continued tinkering.

"Is it supposed to be in a useless pile like that?"

Luke finally stopped, putting everything down, and looked up at him.

"What?" Dix asked when he didn't say anything at first.

"Are you gonna tell on me?" Luke questioned.

Dix frowned. "Uh…what?"

Luke shook his head. "Nothing never mind…just calm down." He picked the scanner back up and turned it again. "It's not like I plan on-"

SNAP!

"-breaking…it…" Luke said slowly as he looked at the scanner that was now in two parts with his wide, disbelieving eyes.

Dix's eyes were equally serious. "Mole is going to kill-"

"Alright, alright, I know," Luke snapped, his eyes still fixated on the broken parts. He turned them around in his hands. "I'm sure it's not so bad," he said, piecing them together on the table. "It just needs a little…" the halves fell away from each other, one of them breaking into another section. Luke gulped. "Glue?"

A beep sounded and one set of typing keys silenced. There was a three second pause, and then, "Hey, boss?"

Luke and Dix looked up at each other, sharing a surprised look. As one they turned back around to see one of the X5's leaning back in his chair, holding his headphones off one ear, and looking at Dix.

Luke gave Dix a nudge.

Dix cleared his throat. "Yes?"

"You need to see this."

AAAAAAAAA

Track was in a crouch, his fingers touching a skid mark on the pavement in front of him.

Slowly he stood up, looking around the alley with his owl-eyes at the same time searching for Max's scent. It was hard to detect.

Her scent had been easy to follow after his initial hesitation. He had gotten her scent from her motorcycle on the way out like Mole suggested. He had been surprised it was still there, considering she didn't usually leave TC without it. It probably had something to do with the heat White had put on her when he publicly announced what her wheels were. Driving that thing around would be a directly to jail square, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars.

The borrowed phone in his pocket rang.

Eyes still scanning the alleyway he pulled the phone out of his pocket and answered it. "Hello?"

"Track, this is Luke. Hold on, were putting you on a conference call."

The line beeped. He looked at the screen for a moment, then hit accept.

"Alright everybody, listen up," Mole's voice came over the line. "Maxx is going to debrief us on what they got so far."

Maxx?

A throat was cleared, and then a very smooth, very _not _feminine voice started speaking. It was definitely not _the _Max. "Okay, Alec and Josh are currently on the rooftops, trailing Max's scent. We're coordinating through mikes and they should be able to hear this, we're on speaker phone."

"Yeah, we can hear ya," a gruff voice added. Track recognized this one as Alec, the SIC.

Mole spoke up again. "Actually, we can speed the chase up a little bit for ya. Ice Queen was spotted on surveillance about three blocks down on Hendrix and Locust. She was exiting a bar wearing sweats and wife beater."

"Okay, she got clothes. That helps ease my mind," Alec's sarcastic voice added. "Can we follow her scent while she's wearing someone else's clothes?"

Track spoke up for the first time. "Actually, you can."

"Oh, and who the hell are you?" Alec asked.

"Track, sir," he said.

"Okay Track, I'll bite."

Track grinned, but didn't let his amusement show in his voice. "I went to the alley she was last seen and I think I found where her trail ended."

There was a brief silence. "What do you mean you _think?" _Mole's even deeper, rough voice demanded. "I thought you were a super lo-jack."

"I am," he answered confidently. "Except I followed a scent that I thought was hers, because I couldn't find hers exactly."

"Explain," the two gruff voices said at the same time.

"I picked up her scent from the bike, which wasn't easy. I had to separate it from the exhaust fumes, but it still leaves some because she usually does smell a little bit like her bike, but not in an overwhelming way like it was-"

"Is there a point to this?" Mole asked.

"Anyway, I went to the alley Josh saw her. I did pick up a scent, and it was close, damn close to Max's, but it was different."

"Different, like oh I need a shower different, or different like gym sneakers and warm apple pie are different?" Alec questioned.

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain…I'm pretty positive it was her, it was so close, but she smelled…I dunno, warmer…I guess," he trailed off.

There was silence.

Finally Alec spoke up. "Warmer."

"Yes," he confirmed. "I know it's weird, but it's the only way I can explain it."

"Max, but not," he heard Joshua say.

"Exactly," Track said.

"Okay, let's just pretend we all understand," Luke started. "So you followed the 'Max-but-not' scent, right?"

"Yes, I found the bar where you guys caught her on camera and went all the way to some parking lot." His eyes flicked back down to the track. "She found a ride."

"Oh, for the love of-" Alec swore.

Track continued. "Motorcycle, I'm guessing, since there's only one set of tracks."

"Okay," Dix said logically. "She found transportation. Why would Max need transportation?"

No one answered.

"Well," Track added. "From the looks of it, she was headed out of town."

"Why do you say that?" someone questioned.

"Well, I'm in the outer district," he glanced up, "Looking out into the forest. She took to the rooftops until the outskirts, I'm guessing to avoid the sectors."

"She knows about sectors?" an older voice questioned.

Alec answered him. "Always be prepared, doctor. Maxie was probably just covering her bases, treating everything like enemy territory when in unfamiliar situations."

Something in Alec's statement clicked something in Track's mind.

"That makes sense," the older man conceded.

"No, it doesn't make any sense," Alec said aloud, contradicting himself.

"What?"

Alec continued, following a very similar line of thought as Track was still having. "Max is acting like a trained soldier in enemy territory," he said slowly.

Mole growled. "Yes, we established that. She's watching her ass. What's your point, princess?"

"Max wouldn't act like a soldier if she didn't have a memory of being trained would she?"

There was silence. "Well," the older man spoke up, "The training would be engrained in her memory. Your skills come almost easier than instincts, having been trained since you were young, right?"

"I think she does. Remember Manticore," Track chimed.

"What makes you think that?" Luke asked.

"Everything she's done so far has been…methodic," he said slowly, realizing as he was saying it out loud, that it was what had been bugging him this whole time. "I've hunted a lot of things before. Everything she did, she did in order of necessity and in a straight, almost determined, line of travel. It was like she was making a beeline for this road," he said. Suddenly he looked up. "Dix, where does…US 45 take you?"

Keys sounded over his speaker. "I don't know of anything off the top of my head…"

A transgenic spoke up, "It takes you to Manticore."

Alec scoffed. "No, Manticore is on the West. It's nowhere near 45."

"No, it takes you to the old facility, in Gillette."

"The abandoned one in Wyoming?" someone clarified.

"One and the same," the transgenic spoke up.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up," Mole said. "Are you guys trying to tell me that there is more than one facility? Why was this one abandoned?"

"There was a major security breech," the transgenic answered. "We were transferred to the main facility in Seattle while Gillette was under investigation, but we were never sent back."

"Who in the world has the manpower to cause that kind of a compromise to a place like Manticore?" Mole asked.

"The 09ers," Alec said slowly. "When they toasted all the test tubes."

AAAAAAA

She tilted to her right, picked UP her left foot, and flicked the kickstand out. She leaned the bike back to the left and dismounted.

By looking at the empty trees, Max would guess that it was late autumn. A sudden breeze blew through, rustling around the brown leaves on the ground and making them dance. Despite all that and the obvious chill, she felt no need for a jacket. It was a good thing though, since she had woken up in next to nothing. The only thing she found in the bathroom was a large jacket, which she had taken, but there was no way that riding a motorcycle through the city would let people overlook her state of undress. She had found a rather baggy pair of sweat pants that she had to almost double the drawstring around her waist, and a loose tank top. She had really wanted some shoes to protect her feet while she rode, but she hadn't wanted to stick around any longer than she had to when that Nomlie had shown up. So, barefoot it was. Shifting hadn't been exactly pleasant, but she would live.

Max pocketed the key that the drunk man had so kindly loaned her and shuffled her way cautiously through the leaves and gravel. The branches swayed back and forth as a particularly harsh wind blew through. Uneasily she walked up to the structure in front of her.

It was very isolated out here, surrounded by all the bare trees. The road was at least a quarter of a mile away, but that was the way Manticore liked it.

Max made her way around to the doors. They were grey and steel with tiny barred windows. Obviously transgenic-proofed. The sound of breaking glass was unsurprisingly loud in the dead silence of the fall weather. It took every ounce of self-control in her to keep from jumping.

When the noise didn't echo, she paused with a frown on her face. One of the things about these Wyoming woods in the fall is that they bounce and manipulate the sound like mad, confusing you and messing up your hunting ability. Max hadn't been the only one to spend time in Isolation for taking a longer time than normal during tracking drills.

Before she could look around, the crash sounded again, only this time it was followed by a picture of someone diving out a window.

Max shook her head to clear it, and she was once again facing the steel doors. She backed up slowly. "Okay, window it is, then."

She walked around the side of the building.

A dark window loomed near, and she knew it was the moment of truth. She took a deep breath and stepped up, cupping her hands around her face. It was an office. It was dark and dusty, almost certainly uninhabited for a long time.

With an almost reflexive look around the surrounding trees, she made a fist and smashed it through. Once again, she had a strange flashback of some blurry figure diving out of a window amidst a great sound of glass breaking. She shook her head and continued knocking out the glass until her hands were running with blood and there was a hole in the window about the size of a pizza box. She hoisted herself up and carefully slipped through. When she was inside, she remained crouched on the ledge, taking in the room, before she was satisfied.

She hopped down, landing in her usual graceful crouch, until the sharp pain registered in her head. Her knees dropped out from under her, causing her to land in the pile of glass and further injure herself. She hissed. The sweat pants and thin tank top offered little protection against the glass.

She lay still for a minute, wondering what to do. For now, the big shards remained harmlessly flat underneath her. Only the little diamond shaped bits cut into her skin. If she were to start moving one of the big shards could turn and become deadly.

"Don't move," a very familiar voice said, followed by a noise she had been bred to recognize during a nuclear blast. The cocking of a gun.

AAAAA

If Dix had nothing to do with all of the people crowding HQ, then Luke definitely had nothing to do. Dix was more the computer-enhanced one anyway. Luke was more of a hands-on type of guy. He probably could build a DVD player with a can opener. But not a phone…definitely not a phone.

He smiled and pushed the crushed phone aside to frown at what Dix had dubbed, "The Thermo-Scan."

He had definitely broken something very important. He used the tweezers, since his round-stubby fingers were less than graceful, to pick up the broken chip.

The door behind him opened, letting in a roar of frantic typing, rolling chairs, and raised voices calling across the room to each other. The door was shut again and the chaos was once more muffled into peaceful silence. Luke turned to look behind him. His first instinct was to smirk knowingly at the lizard-commando who now stood with his palms and back against the door, his cigar burned down to where it was almost half ash and walking too fast would send the burning cinders flying in the crustaceous face.

"Got to you too, huh?" Luke offered.

Mole seemed to notice that he wasn't the only one in the room then, which was a testament to how frazzled the tough, sharp-eyed lizard actually was.

He straightened and resumed his confident stance. "Did not," he said defensive. His eyes followed past him to the table, and suddenly his voice was suspicious. "What you got there?"

Luke then remembered what he had been doing before Mole walked in. In fact, Luke took this time to remember that he had actually been avoiding someone for the sake of his soul. Lo and behold, guess who it was that just had to come in here to escape.

"You know what," Luke said shifting to the side slightly, blocking Mole's view of the scattered mess on the table. "This is my hiding spot. I was here first."

Mole's eyes narrowed now. "Give it up, nerd, I'll find out eventually, and I may be…lenient if you man up and tell me first."

"Right," Luke snorted. "I doubt that."

Mole took his cigar out, tapping off an obscene amount of ash onto the floor, brought it back up, and took a long, hard drag. He tilted his head back and blew the smoke out in a stream. It vaguely looked like a man-dragon. Or maybe Luke's thoughts were exaggerating everything in his panic. Mole watched the smoke swirl around in billows as he said casually, "That bad, huh?"

"Worse, I fear," Luke said tiredly. With a sigh, he moved to the side. Mole took another lazy drag on his cigar before he walked up to the table and stared at the mass of wires and bits. He studied it for a long moment.

Finally, when Luke feared that he had been too furious to speak, Mole asked, while casually flicking a piece of the equipment no doubt worth millions of dollars, "This junk pile supposed to mean something to me?"

Luke let out his breath in a big gush. A shaky smile crossed his lips. "Nope," he said happily. He turned back around and went back to work, trying to fix the Thermo-Scan. Conversationally he asked, "So, what's the update?"

Mole leaned back against the table as he puffed on his cigar. "Well, Track was closest, so Alec ordered him to 'borrow' a bike tranny-style. Alec didn't want to chance her taking flight again when she finds out that the Gillette facility is abandoned."

"I still don't believe that there were more facilities out there than the Seattle one," Luke said, conversationally.

"Yeah, well, you miss out on all the fun in the basement," Mole said sarcastically, looking off into space.

"Not just the lower X-series were surprised," Luke felt the need to add. "A lot of the X5's didn't know about the other facility either, unless they originally started out there, and they mostly kept it hush-hush under strict orders."

"Hush-hush," Mole repeated with a smirk. "Then, you know this…" Mole asked.

"The X5 who mentioned it was explaining some of what they did there." Luke quit fiddling with the Thermo-Scan to meet Mole's eyes. "Apparently it was a special sort of training there. Accelerated, cream of the crop sort of thing. But mostly, it was a place for anomalies. It was headed by this scary guy who had cold blue eyes that could cut you through with just a look. Dylecker."

"Dylecker," Mole repeated, doubtfully.

Luke nodded.

"Sounds…crude," Mole said with a twist of his lips.

"You wouldn't laugh if you met the guy. He was a cold bastard. Could cut children up while he sipped his coffee."

"Let me guess, he ate nails for breakfast washed down by half a dozen raw eggs," Mole said dryly.

Luke kept a straight face, but turned and picked the equipment back up and began to fiddle. "Wouldn't surprise me."

Mole took a hard drag, puffing it out slowly while he grinned. "Now, why doesn't _that _surprise me?"

An almost sweet, plastic burnt smell reached Mole's nose. He took a surreptitious look at his cigar, holding it out in front of his face before carefully bringing it closer and sniffing.

"Ow, dammit!"

Mole jumped and looked down to the mole-mutant next to him who was blowing on his finger. He looked up sheepishly at Mole. "Burnt my finger," he said in lieu of explanation. Mole stood up and leaned over his shoulder.

"Just what exactly are you doing, nerd-boy?"

Luke held up a tiny, dark green piece of plastic and pointed to a matching green piece of plastic on the table. "Fixing this chip."

"Oh," Mole said, noticing the soldering gun lying back on its stand. "Well, can't you just use a different chip?" Mole asked, fingering through the pile of junk.

"No, I," Luke started, but stopped. "Well, I guess I could use a different chip, but it really would be best if I fixed this one."

Mole picked up a chip roughly the same size as the one Luke was trying to fix. "This one looks the same size."

Luke finished soldering what he was working on before he looked over. A frown crossed his eyes. "Where did you find that?"

"In this pile of junk."

Luke looked to the pile of junk he was indicating. "Track's phone?"

"Is that what this is?" Mole asked with raised eyebrows.

Luke ignored him; he was in his own world right now, mumbling stuff every so often. Suddenly, the legs of his chair scraped loudly as he stood up and started pushing Mole towards the door, all the while still mumbling things under his breath.

He slammed the door in Mole's face before Mole could even comprehend what was going on, with a simple explanation of, "Mole, you're a genius."

Excitedly he went back to the table and sat down. His round stubby fingers may not be very deft, but they were fast as they flew to put the scanner back together, with the chip from the phone in place of the original chip. In under five minutes, the heap of metal and plastic was once more a recognizable Thermo-Scan, one of the reasons he had to kick Mole out.

The last thing in place, he switched on the power and turned the contraption over in his hands to stare at the screen. Very slowly he reached his hand around and held it out in front of the lens.

He expelled a breath in disappointment.

Nothing.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Despite her instructions against it, and even though she was still in a dangerous position with the glass gathered underneath her, Max's instincts took over as she shot up with a powerful burst of energy, making an impressive leap from a completely relaxed position. She arched enough to land away from the glass on the balls of her bare feet. There was nothing more exciting to Max than being barefoot. It made her feel powerful; let her be the predator she was bred to be…agile, quick, silent.

Before she could relax her stance from her landing, or register the pain from her cut feet, she had flashed over to behind the man. She grabbed gun wielding arm and popped it back at the elbow causing the gun to clatter to the ground. In another beat she had brought herself around and used her own elbow to hit the pressure point of his neck near the carotid artery. The man dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Max bent, her fingers searching out, and feeling, a steady pulse. Carefully she flipped him over.

Oh, crap.

Lydecker.

She had just knocked out, not only her commanding officer, but the PIC of the whole goddamn facility.

She stood up quickly, looking around.

Two instincts were warring it out in her mind, and for the life of her she couldn't figure out why. Part of her knew that she should stay until he gained consciousness and await her punishment like the good little soldier she was.

But another, more surprising part of her, with an unusually brazen attitude was yelling, "_Fuck _that!"

It also wanted her to walk up to the man and get rid of the problem he presented to her unit once and for all as a picture of Lydecker sipping his coffee while they dissected her brother, Jack, flashed across her mind.

Max stood there for a long moment in indecision, before she ignored them both.

She walked over to his fallen gun with the trepidation and wariness she would use if faced with a snake. Another moment flashed through her eyes, one that didn't make any sense, like it was missing something. It was Eva, standing in front of her, protecting her as was her way. Her and Zack the parents of the unit. Max watched as she was shot down. She stared down at the body on the floor a moment, before looking up into the eyes of Lydecker.

Max shook her head. Before she could change her mind and kill Lydecker flat out, she picked up the gun, ejected the clip, pocketed it, and threw the gun back down.

With one more look to her CO, she stepped out into the hallway. She had of course recognized the place her memory had taken place, she knew this place like one remembers a recurring nightmare. So far, that memory was the clearest one she had had, and that seemed like a logical place to start looking for her lost time. She came upon the hallway and slowed.

She walked down, eyes taking everything in. Nothing seemed out of place. Suddenly she stopped. The memory of Eva getting shot flashed through her mind again, and when it cleared the only thing that changed was the lighting and people.

She was standing in the exact spot.

Suddenly she looked to her left. At the window.

She walked up to it and touched it. _Crashing glass sounded as a person dove out, landing in a tuck roll._

Max yanked her hand back. Suddenly, her memories gripped her and she was reliving it. The escape.

_She was standing behind Eva again, only this time, she wasn't alone. _

_Her brothers and sisters were surrounding her, supporting her. Jace was off to the side, with the unit, but on her own. She had been that way since Jack had died. Everyone else was standing next to their other half. Vada was next to her partner and long time friend, Brin. Ben and Tinga, Krit and Syl, Seth and Zane. Jondy of course was next to Max, helping support her along with the youngest of the group, Kavi. He was universal. The unit only had fifteen, so he went wherever he felt like. Zack was standing just to the left of Kavi._

_Eva was shot down. Past the bright lights, Max could just make out Lydecker's smoking gun._

_Suddenly Zack went to the left, pulling along on Kavi. They jumped and dove out the window. The others followed. Jondy helped Max stand up, eager to follow the others who had already disappeared. Max started forward, but stopped. She turned back around and met Jace's uncertain eyes. Max frowned. Jace shook her head._

_Max understood. The whole unit could communicate silently. They were close, but they were even closer to their other half. And Jack was Jace's. Max had told them what she saw, but if there was even the slightest chance that maybe the kid on the dissection table hadn't been Jack, Jace had to stay._

_Max didn't like it, but Jondy was already urging her on._

Max snapped out of her vision when she smelt something. It was faint, almost like gunpowder, or fireworks.

Fireworks?

Yes, she had seen them once, after she escaped and she was at…someone's house. She had stayed there for a while. But she couldn't remember her name. The fireworks were a gorgeous sight though. So frivolous to her analytical mind. She had immediately loved them.

She looked around, and followed the scent down numerous hallways. Hallways that had been forbidden to her; hallways she had never been down.

Suddenly, when she turned a corner, the smell got stronger and she could see why.

Halfway down the hallway, the walls were scorched, gradually growing darker as they led up to a large black hole. Max started towards it, gingerly stepping around the bent and nearly unrecognizable metal mass of the door that had been blasted off. When she got to the doorway she looked in.

It was the DNA lab, her mind supplied. Immediately the life between her escape up until they tried to take down Manticore with the help of Lydecker filled in. It was a significant cascade. Remembering OC, Sketchy, Normal, Herbal, and…Logan. She also remembered that this mission hadn't ended well. She had been shot.

And suddenly, Max knew everything. Well, most everything, she didn't remember how she lost her memory.

A noise sounded at the end of the hallway.

Max whirled around, hurling the ammo clip from the gun at a speed that would make pro-pitchers jealous. It flew harmlessly past a young man who simply bent at the hips to avoid it. It passed by, close enough to ruffle his hair, before imbedding itself so far into the wall that it stuck. The man looked from the clip back to her.

"Max…" he said slowly holding his hands up.

His hair was blonde, and for a minute she thought it could be her only little brother, Kavi, except Kavi had grey eyes. This man had sky blue.

"Who are you?" she asked in a crouch.

"I'm Track," he said easily.

"We've never met," Max said, but it had an uncertain lilt to it.

"No, we haven't, but I was sent to find you," he confirmed. He was quiet a moment. "Alec is on his way."

"Alec," Max said neutrally.

"Yeah, he's-"

"A pain in the ass?" Max offered.

The change in the X5 was amazing. His whole stance relaxed as he let a smile cross his face. "To some."

"To most," Max insisted.

Track chuckled. "So…you remember?"

Max stood up from her crouch. "Mostly, I think."

A thought occurred to her. "Did you happen to see another vehicle parked outside?"

"Yeah, the bike you rode in on," he stated, giving her a strange look.

Max nodded, not sure if she was relieved or disappointed that Lydecker had gotten away.

Lydecker…wasn't he dead?

Suddenly, she heard the crunch of gravel. "Did you hear that?" she asked as she took off towards him.

"Hear what?" he asked, running to keep up with her.

Max didn't answer. She trailed her way through the maze of hallways, surprised she didn't get lost. She made it to the front doors which were now standing open.

She came to a stop because she could see who it was that had pulled up.

A few seconds later, Track came to a stop beside her, panting. "You're…fast," he said between breaths.

Max ignored him because people were piling out of the van. She was engulfed in a hug.

"Oh, Max we were so worried. Don't you ever do that again!"

"Move, Fake Maxx! Joshua want see Little Fella!"

The body was ripped away from her and replaced by an even more suffocating grip. She was lifted very high off her feet and spun around.

"I missed you, too, Joshua," she squeezed out with her last breath.

"Alright, Big Fella, Little Fella's gotta breathe," came an easy-go-lucky voice. Joshua backed up, and Max could see Alec's smirking face.

Before she had a chance to catch her breath, she was engulfed once again. She wasn't sure anyone was stronger than Joshua, but this grip was stronger. It was brief, though, and before she knew it, Alec was backing away from her, rubbing the back of his neck.

He cleared his throat. "Right, don't do that. Ever."

There was a tense moment where a very awkward silence stretched on and nobody moved until…

"Max and Alec gettin' busy!" Joshua's face was ridiculously happy. (AN: Katrina. Beloved sister. Died from laughing. 1992-2010. R.I.P.)

Max grinned, having been exposed to Joshua's saying, but three simultaneous chokes sounded from Alec, Maxx, and Track.

Max reached up onto her tiptoes and ruffled Joshua's hair. "Let's go home Big Fella."

"I'll take the bike back to the parking lot," Alec said suddenly.

Max frowned and turned around. "Oh, yeah, forgot about that. No sweat, Alec, I took it, I'll return it."

Alec held up his hands. "Please, spare me. You seem to attract trouble," Alec said, mounting the bike.

Max hesitated for a second, but with a tug from Joshua, she got into the van. It pulled out.

Alec looked over to where Track stood by the other bike, frowning. Suddenly, Alec grinned. "Wanna race?"

Track looked up. "No, you go ahead. I'll catch up."

Alec's smile lessened, but he shrugged his shoulders, turning the key and starting the engine. "Whatever."

Alec shifted to first, ready to take off, but Track yelled his name. He looked back at him.

"Does Max usually carry a gun?"

Alec almost thought the question stupid, what kind of Manticore alumni didn't know how to use a gun, but then he noticed the way Track had worded it. He thought hard. "Actually, I don't think I've ever seen her use a gun."

Track nodded, like he had been expecting that answer, but the frown on his face didn't go away. In fact, it deepened.

"Why?" Alec asked slowly.

Track shrugged, his smile slipping into place. "No reason. I'll see you back at TC, okay?"

Alec watched him for a moment before easing off the clutch and rolling on the throttle, taking off.

_Are all transgenics this weird?_

AAAAAAAAAA

"So you don't know what's wrong with me?" Max said around a thermometer.

Dr. Carr sat back in his chair, replacing his stethoscope back in his bag. He let out a deep breath. "It's hard to say Max. The fact of the matter is, we've never seen anything like this. There are so many possibilities. They changed your DNA. Do you know the significance of that?"

Max took the thermometer out of her mouth. "What if my DNA was coded to change?"

Dr. Carr took hold of her hand and guided the thermometer back in, giving her an admonishing look. Max offered an innocent grin.

He shook his head at her. "I guess that's possible," he frowned. "And it'd be a lot less scary."

"Scared they'll code you bald?" Maxx called back from the driver's seat.

"Funny," he said. His eyes went back to Max. "You thought your specific DNA targeted virus was scary. Imagine what they can do if they alter you DNA enough just to make your cells reject oxygen or have you own macrophages encoded to eat your brain. It's scary what they're doing and there is no limit to what they could do."

_Everyone_ in the van was silent.

Finally Max spoke up. "So you don't know what they did to me?"

Dr. Carr looked down. "I'm sorry Max."

"Hey, it was probably nothing," she said handing him over the thermometer, and putting on a smile. "So they had a little fun with my body temp, no big. I've dealt with bigger problems before breakfast."

"Yeah," Dr. Carr said unconvinced. "Probably nothing."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"Thermal scanner, huh?" Max said as she leaned over Luke's shoulder. "It's like savin' up a million when all you needed was a dollar."

"Yeah, it really was genius in its simplicity. It shows heat readings and gives temperatures. Since our core temperatures are naturally higher…"

"It was like shooting fish in a barrel."

Luke gave her a look. "Yes, Miss Simile."

"Biggs didn't even have a chance," Max said, solemnly.

"No, even with a big crowd, this baby could pick up on one of us like a beacon."

Max gave him a look. "That was lousy."

"Sorry we all don't have analogies stored in our brains that satisfy your standards."

"Like ducks without-"

"Okay, Max. You win. Anyway, I think I'm on to something with this little guy." He picked it up a green chip. "This is the piece that was broken in the scanner." He picked up another, nearly identical green piece. "This one came from the phone that Joshua broke."

Max chuckled. "What gave you the idea to use a phone chip?"

Luke grinned. "Mole, actually."

"You're shitting me."

"'Fraid not. Anyway, I think that if we replace the chip with a chip from a cell phone, it won't be able to scan us anymore."

"Okay…but how is that going to help us. We can't just walk right up to the police and go, 'Hey, do you mind if I borrow your Thermo-Scan for a sec, I promise I'll give it back in tip top shape.'"

"It's a start," he grumbled.

The door opened behind them.

"Hey Luke," Track said. "Hey Max, can I talk to you for a sec?"

Max stood up, patting Luke on the back. "Keep working on it. You're doing good."

"Yes ma'am," he said with a dramatic salute.

"Don't call me ma'am!"

"Never again, sir!"

Max rolled her eyes as she closed the door behind her. She looked up to Track. "So, you wanted something?"

"Yeah…" he hesitated. "Look there's no easy way to go about this, so I'll just dive right in. Did you run into anyone when you were at that old Gillette base?"

Max's smile faltered. "What makes you ask that?"

"I noticed another set of tire tracks around back before I left." His eyes stared at her face intently. "And I remembered you asking about another vehicle. How did you know?"

Max shrugged him off. "Oh, same as you, I ran the perimeter and noticed the tire tracks myself."

"That's it," Track asked, holding her gaze.

Max nodded.

Track exhaled loudly. "If you say so."

"I do," Max confirmed. Track nodded slowly. Max vaguely felt like she had done something wrong. Well, she knew she had, but she felt like he did too.

"Alright, well, I'm going to go now," Track turned and made it about four steps before he turned back around and placed something in her hand. "I almost forgot. You left this behind."

With that he turned and walked off.

Already knowing what was there, but having to see for herself to be sure, Max opened her hand.

It was the clip from Lydecker's gun.

**AN: I would like to say that from now on, I will not only have plot, but phrasings that actually sound like English and sentences that don't go on forever and ever, starting after this one. I have the most awesomest BETA in the world, whom I love to death and would love to see her face as she reads this shout out. I don't got no idea though, when she gonna read dis here fancy note, so I'se gonna hafta satisfy myself with the knowledge that I made her wince at least three times in less than one hundred words. Love ya, even though the site says you're not an official beta, you have my stamp of approval...and undying gratification...**

**...that just ran out three seconds ago. **

**Snooze ya lose!**

**BTW, if you didn't catch the shout-out, it was in AN in the spot where you died laughing;)**


	13. S03E13 Punches and Puns

**Shout out to my lovely Beta ~axerina who possesses patience beyond belief to put up with my sporadic writing spells!**

_S03E13 – Punches and Puns_

Max walked into HQ with a little spring in her step. She froze. The place was…empty. All of the computers were off and it was eerily quiet. It was a noise you didn't notice until it was gone like being in the forest right before a storm and all of a sudden the crickets stop. The silence was like a forewarning of things yet to come.

Shouldn't somebody be monitoring the security cameras?

She turned around, hearing something off down the hall. Well, it could have been down the hall. Since her run in with the shot her hearing along with just about all of her other senses had all been super-charged. Even Alec, who had ten years of training on her, had been eating mat a lot more during their training sessions. It was getting to the point of where it was a gray matter now on who the teacher and who the student was. Alec had even admitted as much and resigned himself, after receiving a particularly sore shoulder from a punch Max forgot to pull, to merely teaching her the techniques and letting Joshua do the actual sparring with her.

Following the slight rumbling noise, Max walked out of HQ's main room and down hall. There were many doors, but one at the very end, an impressive distance of forty feet from where she heard the sound, had a light shining through on all but one side. Carefully approaching the slightly ajar door, Max peered in through the crack, knocking on the door.

"Yeah?" a voice called out.

Max nudged the door open with her foot, careful not to spill the coffees in her hands. She entered the room, taking in her surroundings as she approached the small desk Luke was working at. Apart from the desk, there was only a small cot bed set up with a thin fleece blanket and no pillow in the left corner near the door.

"Aren't people supposed to be watching the cameras?" Max asked in lieu of greeting.

Luke didn't look up from what he was doing. Max looked over his shoulder.

"That the do-hickey that busted our chops?" she asked.

Luke's hands faltered. His back straightened very slightly out of its hunch. His eyes flicked to her. "I _think _it is. I mean, if 'do-hickey' is supposed to be the Thermo-scan, and 'busted our chops' is some sort of slang for transgenics being caught and killed due to this particular piece of technology, then yes. Yes it is," he said dryly.

Max smiled as she watched him continue tinkering. She leaned forward, placing one of the coffees on the desk next to his hand and a kiss on his cheek. His reaction was amusing. The screwdriver he had been using snapped as he jerked it from the screw head and his elbow knocked a piece of hard plastic off the table that bounced when it hit the floor with a loud noise. He bent over so fast to pick it up that he almost fell out of the chair. The right legs lifted into the air. To correct the tilt he jerked back up, hitting his head off the underside of the table so hard that all the metal sprang up into the air vaguely reminding Max of the game, _Perfection_.

Max's smile was cheeky. "Jeez, Luke, it's just coffee. No need to spring a trap."

Luke sat up straight in his chair without hitting anything more. He avoided her eyes. Max was positive that his cheeks would be red if they had been physically able to blush. A small laugh escaped Max without her permission. Luke got over his embarrassment. His narrowed eyes flew to her face. Max tried to compose herself, but no matter what she did, she couldn't, or wouldn't, wipe the grin off her face.

"You…brought me coffee?"

"No need to sound so surprised," Max said, annoyed. "Have you seen Dix? I've been looking for him."

Luke paused, the mug halfway to his mouth. His eyes glanced over to her. "Is that who the other coffee is for?"

His voice was very careful. Max frowned. "He's been working on something for me. I thought he could use it."

Luke snorted. "And naturally, you brought me some too."

"Well, yeah."

Luke sighed. "Max, it's not like we're the Bobbsey twins. You don't have to get me one when you get something for him. Promise, I won't throw a tantrum."

Max's frown deepened. "What's your problem?"

Luke closed his eyes, letting out a breath. "Nothing, nothing. It's just been a long week."

Max's eyes lit in understanding. They flicked back over to the table covered in a mini junkyard. "Haven't figured it out yet?"

He scoffed. "Of course I've figured it out. What kind of mutant do you think I am? There are just some…kinks that I have yet to work out."

Max's lips twitched. "I see," she said, gravely. "Well, I guess I'll just take this," she said, reaching for the coffee.

Luke's hand was just suddenly gripping her wrist. Sometimes it was easy to forget that the resident computer-nerd duo were transgenic too. Even with their abnormal exterior, it was easy to think of them as harmless puppies. The grip on her wrist was clearly saying that they were anything but.

"NO, no. No need to be dash," Luke said, conversationally.

Max rolled her eyes, not bothering to correct him. A lot of the transgenics were lousy in their sayings, but the physically normal X's all went through Common Verbal Usage 101 before being deployed in the field, and even they were lousy. The idioms often came out wrong or stilted and awkward; it's like listening to a nun trying to cuss…it just doesn't work. The basement transgenics could never go out on undercover missions, so there was no reason for Manticore to train them to assimilate into the general public…so no Common Verbal Usage for them, along with other things. Ergo, their picking up lousy slang from the Upstairs transgenics. It was one big chain reaction that Max labeled as a hopeless cause long ago.

"I'm sorry. Does that mean you _want _the coffee? I wouldn't want to offend you, Nan." Max held her hand up to her ear, as if she was trying to help her hear him.

Luke finally lightened up. "Please," he said. "Everyone knows that I would be Bert. Dix is more Nan." He paused and put on a serious face. "I'm sorry for being grouchy."

Max smiled.

"By the way," Luke started. Max looked back at him. There was a twinkle in his eye. "Just out of curiosity, is that coffee in Dix's cup?"

"Yes…"

Luke nodded. He watched her over the rim of his mug as he took a sip, his eyes dancing.

Max frowned. "Okay…" She walked over to the door and left.

"Thank you for the coffee Max!" Luke's voice carried out to her.

"No problem," she called back over her shoulder. She thought for a second. "And take a nap!"

DARKANGELDARKANGELDARKANGEL

_Plop!_

Alec tried not to scowl as the "food" splattered across his tray, moving in one slow, lumpy crawl. Alec moved his eyes from the oatmeal that had splattered on his jacket, back up to the beaming face of the redheaded cook. Alec gave a sarcastic smile back. "Thanks."

She didn't take offense to his tone. Instead she frowned. "Hey, do you know when Max is going to start the supply runs again? We're running low on food."

Alec raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, I can tell." He looked very pointedly down at his plate. "Our tech geek is really close to figuring out how to neutralize the Thermo-scan. As soon as that's done we can start-"

There was a loud bang. Alec, and almost all of the other ten transgenics awake at this early hour eating their toxic waste, ducked down, searching for cover. Reflexively, his hands jerked, reaching for a weapon, but instead, upended the tray and covered himself with the lumpy meal. Alec wrinkled his nose and brought his hand up to his face. He swiped down and flicked the gluey breakfast off his hands. "Of course," he said with a pessimistic grumble.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!" shouted an energetic voice.

Alec turned to the doors where Joshua stood. The big guy yanked the door from the wall and tried to shut it. There was a large round hole with bunches of spider-web cracks leading out of it from where the handle had gone through the wall.

Joshua's eyes spotted Alec, and he started over.

Alec let out a sigh. "Great."

There was no saving face now. Alec stood up slowly, looking down at his covered leather jacket. He closed his eyes, letting out a slow breath.

"Alec, Alec," Joshua called. Everyone was looking over now. A couple of females leaned close together, laughing and pointing at Alec.

"Why me?" Alec mouthed, looking skyward.

"Don't Alec just love oatmeal? Joshua love oatmeal. Oatmeal good for Joshua. Make Joshua big and strong."

Alec continued swiping at the goo, trying to get it off his jacket. "Yeah, yeah. That's what you said the _other _six times we've had it this week."

The cook was amused. Joshua hurried back to the end of the bar to grab a tray and a spoon. He hurried back to her. "Poppy make best oatmeal in town. Joshua would like some, please."

"You're too sweet Joshua," she said, causing the other to blush. Poppy smiled a big smile. "Well I'm glad _somebody _likes my cooking."

Alec ignored her barb, examining his jacket. All of the oatmeal was off of it, but the goo had left behind a white residue that was starting to dry and flake off. He was going to have to clean it with water and then oil it down…again. He scowled. It was something he had done not even a week ago so it would be good for the winter, and oil wasn't exactly in abundance around the Seattle area…or any area for that matter.

The phone in Alec's pocket started ringing. He held up a finger to both Joshua and Poppy, but neither of them were paying him any attention. He gave a sarcastic smile. "Don't mind me. I'm just going to take this _very important _phone call..."

The couple continued making gooey eyes at each other. Alec rolled his eyes, flipping his phone open. He held it up to his ear. "Yeah?"

"_Is Alec there?" _

Incredulously, Alec raised his eyebrows. He looked around the room and gave a sarcastic smile. "Please hold," he said with a saccharine sweet voice. He pushed the hold button, shaking his head.

"I think ol' four-eyes has finally lost it," he said casually to the ignorant pair. Poppy laughed at something Joshua said. Alec's eyebrows quirked. "Right."

He held the phone up to his ear and answered in a deep voice. "Alec here."

"_Alec, this is Logan."_

Alec faked surprise. "Logan! Yeah…I thought I recognized the number. What's up, buddy?" Alec flicked an oat off his coat that he had missed.

"_Alec, this is important. Do you know where Max is?"_

"Max? Nope. Haven't seen her?"

"_Alec-"_

"Hey, is this one of those…ya know," Alec waggled his eyebrows. Dramatically he looked around the room before stage-whispering, "Eyes Only things?"

There was a long-suffering sigh from the phone. "_Yes, actually. It is. Can you find her?"_

Alec walked up to the couple, holding his recently-emptied tray out to Poppy. She raised her eyebrows at him then looked to the floor where his first serving of breakfast had ended.

"Sorry?" Alec mouthed. She glared and used her spatula to point over to the corner. There was a bag of bread and a canister of sugar. _Oh, you've gotta be kid-_

"_Alec, are you still there?"_

Alec adjusted the phone and held it to his ear with his shoulder as he turned back to Poppy. "Yeah, I'm still here." He caught her eye and pointed to his tray.

"_Good, I need you to get Max for me." _

Poppy shook her head.

"_I've tried her phone." _

Alec nodded.

"_And she's not answering."_

Poppy shook her head again, mouthing the word, "No."

"_But I need her."_

"Yes," Alec mouthed back.

"_It's of great importance, Alec."_

She shook her head soundly. "Nope."

Alec jerked his hand so hard, pointing at the tray, that he jostled his phone off his shoulder. Only his quick reflexes prevented it from hitting the floor. Glaring at Poppy through squinted eyes, he held the phone back up to his ear.

"_Alec, are you listening? This is a matter of national security. Alec?"_

That's Logan for you. Ever the righteous drama queen. Alec rolled his eyes and sighed. "Alright, alright. I hear ya." Alec gave one more glare at the smug cook for good measure before he started for the door. "Go find Maxie. Matter of preventing the apocalypse – oh wait," Alec gave a wry twist of his lips. "That already happened."

"_Alec-" _Alec hated it when Logan used that voice – the voice that implied that he was being immature and should stop.

"I'm going. I'm going. Hold your wheel chair," Alec grumbled, opening the door and getting a cold blast in the face. He shrugged his collar up and froze. He swore. "Logan, I'm sorry. I know the chair is a sore spot. I didn't mean-"

"_Doesn't matter." _His tone implied everything but.

"Logan-"

"_Just have Max call me when you find her." _

Logan hung up.

"Great, just great," Alec mumbled, closing his phone. He hadn't originally planned on really searching for Max. He had caller ID. He would just hit ignore when "Roller Boy" called back again. But now he felt bad, not a lot, just a smidgen. It was enough that he looked out at the white sky with the biting wind and asked himself if he was really going to traipse TC looking for a person that was literally all over the place, and the answer was: why yes, yes he was.

"Just don't know when to stop, do ya?" Alec said to himself as he pulled the zipper higher up and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

DARKANGELDARKANGELDARKANGEL

A woman with bright red hair paced around the chair behind the Senator.

"This is ridiculous. I should have had that transgenic _bitch _a long time ago. What's taking you so long?"

White fought to keep his face impassive. Ever since being promoted to the transgenic case, he had gone from top dog to just the dog that everybody kicked around. He had worked hard to be respected. He fought tooth and nail for it. He had killed his wifefor it. He had risked his son's _life _for it. Now he was left with nothing. His wife was dead for trying to interfere with Ray's initiation, and Ray had been taken from him. Ames White had lost so much for the Conclave, but never had his faith faltered. At least, not as one would expect it to.

The truth was, though White didn't consciously know it, he had been left with something. He was left with his burning hatred for 452. For it was she who his wife had called before he had been forced to kill her. It was _she_ who had taken his son from him. It was _she_ who had evaded him time and time again, leaving him with no respect or sympathy in a cult he still believed in.

It was her fault his whole family was gone, and his other family had estranged him.

"Calm down, Thula," the senator murmured, not taking his eyes from White's passive face.

"I can't calm down. Our _brother," _she spat out in White's direction, "has given us nothing. He has lost to 452 many times over."

White's eyes flared. "Oh, as opposed to you. You know, it's funny. I seem to recall your being tied up right along beside me." He smirked at the burning hatred she stared him down with. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believed you, a member of the esteemed _Phalanx,_ had your _ass _handed to you by 452."

"This is ridiculous!" she cried. She furiously gestured to White as she pleaded with the senator. "Why do we keep him around? He is a disgrace to the whole Conclave!"

"Hold your tongue, child!" the senator shouted. He didn't raise his voice often, so the effect was instantaneous. He steepled his wrinkled fingers in front of his as he chose his words. "Remind us, Ames, how many transgenics you have exterminated in your short year on the job."

"Twenty-nine, sir."

Thula's eyes narrowed on him at his answer.

"Ah, yes. A good number indeed. Not an unimpressive feet, no?" he asked Thula, who was silently seething next to him.

"No," she grit out.

"Very well, you will do well to remember, dear child, that I love all of my children equally and will not condemn one who has always followed rules so well." He was silent a moment. "It is obvious to me that this 452 is an abnormal case and needs to be taken care of. Immediately." The senator could remind you of any other harmless, polite grandfather until he wanted you to think otherwise. As he held White's gaze, the young agent had to hold in the urge to shiver. He didn't know how the senator did it; there was no threat in his last sentence. He had spoken it as if it something on a to-do-list. But there was a glint in the senator's eyes that promised horrific pain if what he had said wasn't followed.

"Yes, sir."

"Good, good. Now, what have you planned."

"The Canadian Phalanx member, Connor O'Donnell, has been tailing some of her friends. We will figure out her schedule so we can ambush her."

"And if she never leaves?" the senator asked.

White gave an eerie smile. "Well, senator, we'll just have to lure her out."

The senator gave a proud smile as he reclined back in his seat, playing with his cigar. "I like the way you think boy."

DARKANGELDARKANGELDARKANGEL

Max let out a sigh when she stopped at the opening. There was a lamp on at the table where the very distinctive back half of Dix was seen.

It was funny how adamant Luke was about being nothing like Dix. The room was almost identical to Luke's. It had a roll-out bed in one corner, a table where Dix was sprawled out, two computers, and a box of shiny metal and colored wires that seemed to be growing out and reaching for anything near it.

Max stopped when she got within a foot of the slumbering mutant. He was snoring with his mouth open. His head resting on the arm sprawled out in front of him, disappearing over the edge of the desk, while his other arm was curled around. His thumb was dangerously close to his mouth. His hand's resting weight on the keyboard was scrolling out countless E's on an open matrix.

Max grinned, faltered, debated, and then moved to stand at his side instead of directly behind him before grinning again. She placed the coffee next to the stretched out arm. Leaning close to his ear, she whispered, "Is the screen supposed to smoke like that?"

Dix shot straight up. If Max had been standing behind him, she would have had a broken nose. "My babies!"

Max smiled, and when he calmed down enough to realize there was no fire near his precious tech, she leaned in and kissed his cheek.

Dix scowled. With a frown he turned back to his computer, fingers already typing on from where they left off. He faltered, though, when he noticed the mug sitting on his table. "You brought me coffee?"

Max frowned. "Why does everyone fixate on that? Am I so cold that I can't bring my good friends coffee?" she said with a playful punch to his shoulder.

Dix stared at her, his mouth slowly dropping. "You brought…_other _people coffee too?"

Max scowled. The punch she gave him this time was a lot less playful.

Dix smiled and held his hands up defensively.

"Did you find anything?" Max asked after a minute.

Dix pushed the mug over to the very corner of his desk before pulling his keyboard to him and typing.

Max frowned. "You know, it's your own fault it's cold. You are a hard person to find. Who the heck holes up in an elevator shaft?"

"I don't mind the temperature. It tastes just as bad when it's hot." Dix's face broke out into a grin. He glanced at her over his shoulder. "And you haven't seen what this place can do-"

"Wait, wait. Hold up," Max shushed him with her hands. "You don't like coffee?"

Dix shrugged. "No. Luke and I both tried it. He's crazy about it, but I think it tastes like the wrong end of a-"

Max held up her hands again, a scowl on her face. "Are you telling me that _Luke _knows you don't like coffee?"

Dix paused, taking in her murderous expression. "Uh, it was a while back. Maybe it slipped his mind."

"Oh-ho, no. He remembers. 'Is that _coffee _in Dix's cup?'" she mimicked in a high pitched voice.

Dix stared at her blankly. "Oookaaay. Um, anyway…so I was up pretty late last night."

"I noticed. You have a little bit of drool…" Max gestured to her chin.

Dix scowled. "Ha ha. I'm beginning to feel like you _don't _need my help."

"I'm done, I'm done," Max said, holding her hands up defensively. She made an 'after you' gesture. "By all means. Wow me with your mad computer skills, oh nerdy one."

Dix glared through narrowed eyes and pointed a finger at her. "I'm going to let that slide because I'm too excited. Now, of the six files you gave me," he said, pulling them out and flopping them down on the desk so she could see what he had highlighted. "Two of them were unimportant. Trealis Research is, or was, a marine biology center for the Seattle bay. They lost their funding, along with a few employees, to the Pulse."

Max raised a brow. "Lost a few employees? That sounds suspicious."

Dix grimaced. "I thought so too, so I looked into it. Apparently some of the workers were deployed in the field…err, they were in the ocean researching the whales, when the Pulse hit. Something about the high frequencies messed with the whales and drove them insane…uh, you can guess the rest."

Max winced. "Ouch."

"Tell me about it. I'm never going into the ocean again. The case files were very descriptive, Max. Very descriptive…" Dix shuddered. "Now the other that I tossed out, Graver's Institute of Technology, was very clean. Not so clean that they had to be hiding something, but clean as in, they specialized in making vacuum motors. Two-hundred very detailed pages – and six hours of my life that I'll never get back – later I knew every screw and bolt that went into to making the Whirlwind 9000. Yay me."

Max grinned at his lack of enthusiasm. She chucked him in the shoulder. "Don't be a Debbie-downer. You never know when that will come in handy."

Dix scoffed. "Yeah, when the troops outside the fence decide to storm the place, I'll vacuum them to death."

Max tossed the two folders aside and started leafing through the remaining four. "Alright, so we pretty much knew that those were going to be useless."

"Yes, even though _someone _insisted we be thorough and check every angle."

Max ignored the jibe. "So what about the others? The Manticore IA?"

"Ah…that was the main facility…the one in Gillette, Wyoming. The one the 09ers…err, you, escaped from. Anyway…it was shut down very recently. Some _rogues," _he glanced very briefly at her, "Blew the DNA lab a couple of years ago. Everyone there was sent through Psy-Ops. They wiped their memory of the place. They didn't want their soldiers thinking about leading a revolt."

Max shivered as she remembered talking to the other soldiers from the Gillette facility. They hadn't even known of the place until it was mentioned. Then they were crawling from the woodwork, crowding HQ, wanting to know why they were remembering a different part of their lives than what had been planted. It was downright scary what some of the people from Psy-Ops could do. Mia had been their friend, sort of, and she still scared the hell out of Max.

"Once all their memories of the rogue's attack were gone and new ones planted, they were transferred to Manticore IIA, the Seattle base. It was smaller, but it became the main facility while they worked on a bigger one, Manticore IB."

"So, there's _another _Manticore out there somewhere?"

"That's the thing. There's not a whole lot known about this new Manticore. I don't even have a location. I would like to say that the Seattle base was compromised before they could start it, and that's why the information was nonexistent, but…"

Max looked at him when he didn't continue. "But what?"

PRINTING DIVIDE, PRINT FROM HERE!

"Well, there's another reason I can think of for there being no information about this phantom facility."

Max's eyes lit in understanding. "It's being withheld."

Dix nodded. "If it's already in operation, they wouldn't want their information getting into the wrong hands, in case there was a certain rambunctious transgenic on a Manticore killing-spree."

Max grinned at the jibe. "What can I say, girl's gotta have a hobby."

Dix's look spoke volumes.

"So, Manticore IA was the Gillette base, Manticore IIA was the one in Seattle, and Manticore IB is the 'Phantom.' How am I doing so far?" she questioned.

"The Phantom? Seriously? I swear. It's like you only pick-up on the random, irrelevant words whenever I talk."

Max flashed him a smile before looking down at the pile of folders. "Okay, so that takes care of three of the four." She picked up the last one. "What about this one, ITT? We knew it would be good?"

Dix sighed. He leaned on his elbows, rubbing his face tiredly. "Apart from what the file told us-"

"That TC was actually this ITT place and it was tied somehow to Manticore," Max supplied.

"Yes, that. What are the odds of us transgenics escaping Manticore and holing up in a place that could very well have been the foundation for Manticore?"

Max's lips twisted into a wry smirk. "The universe is funny like that."

"Anyway, from what I could find, ITT, short for Institute of Technology and Treatment, was a big supplier nation-wide, but there was records of it having its fingers in all of the countries. Particularly, there were substantial funds with no clear purpose directed to a small facility in South America."

Dix finished his spiel and turned back to look at Max.

She stared at him a second. "That's it?

"Patience, Max. After the Pulse, the daily logs disappeared in the chaos and all the small companies established in foreign continents disbanded and became their own private facilities. That's where I'm stuck. With so many name changes and moves from the breaking apart, it's hard to keep track. That, and I have to hack into the national net just to access the information on the facilities in the other countries."

"What about Logan's net?"

"It might help," he said after a beat.

"Can I use your phone?"

"Knock yourself up."

Max froze with the phone to her ear. "It's-" She stopped and shook her head. "You know what? It doesn't even bother me anymore."

She dialed the number and listened. The phone rang only once. "_Hello?"_

"Hey, Logan, it's me," Max said softly.

"_Oh, Max! I was looking for you. I tried to call you…"_

"Yeah, I forgot my phone back in my apartment. What'd you need?"

"_Uh…yeah, do you remember when I helped you find the blueprints for the place you went to steal the blueprints for TC from?"_

"Photographic memory," Max supplied, remembering that day now only too clearly. "Thank you, by the way, for sending me into the Washington _State, _as in the courthouse presiding over every other judicial branch in the _state _of Washington. _While it was in session!"_

There was a short silence. "_I didn't mention that? Huh. Oops."_

"Really, I'm drowning in your sympathy," she said dryly.

"_You made it out, I assume." _

Max could just _hear _the smile in his voice. "I'm sorry, did you _want _my help?"

"_Oh, Max, this is urgent. I have intel that could prove to be a matter of national-"_

"You have intel that could _prove?_" Max questioned.

The other end of the line was silent for a beat. "_It's not completely verified, more like some of the local thieving gangs talking, but Max? They're really excited. Whatever is in this building is supposed to be a piece that has been around since the founding of this country. I can't let some robbers make off with it because of some doubt of it being real."_

"So you don't even know what it _is?_" Max clarified.

"_Is that the _only_ thing you heard out of all of that?"_

Max rolled her eyes while she shared a look with Dix. "I have a knack for filtering out the bull. It's cool. What I heard was: Blah, blah, blah, Max, I want you to risk your life…blah, blah, blah, I don't know what you're risking your life for."

"_Max…it's a matter of—"_

"National security. I got that already," Max said dryly.

"_What's wrong with you?"_

Max debated. "What's this…_thing, _worth to you?"

There was silence on the other end of the line. "_Are you asking me for _money? _Because you know I don't have a lot of that anymore."_

"No, I'm not asking you for money." Max closed her eyes and sighed. "Look, Logan. I know we're trying to get back to this whole I-scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine, so I'll make you a deal." Dix was frowning at her, but Logan had already agreed, so she continued. "I'll go off on this whack mission of yours…if you look up this thing for me."

It was quiet as he thought it over. Finally, his voice came again. "_Deal."_

DARKANGELDARKANGELDARKANGEL

"I can't believe you broke this thing!" Mole said, loudly.

Luke sighed impatiently, never turning from his project to face the transgenic at his back. "Okay, I would have been a little scared about this confrontation a couple of days ago, but you're too late to yell at me."

Track sat in the corner, chomping an apple, taking everything in, but not yet commenting.

Mole sent him a dubious look, but continued walking up to Luke to look over his shoulder. "You're a cocky bastard, ain't cha?"

"Mole be cocky too, if he did what Luke do," Joshua said excitedly.

Mole shot the wolf-man a menacing look. "What did I say about using my words, Pup?" Mole demanded around his cigar.

Joshua looked down. "To not to."

Track munched another bite of the juicy fruit.

Mole frowned trying to ignore the blond X5. "Queen Bitch is going to eat you alive, buddy," he said, clapping his hands down on Luke's hunched shoulders.

"No she won't, because I solved the problem," Luke said with no little amount of smugness, but then he hesitated. "Well, I sort of solved the problem."

"Sort of?" Mole questioned, incredulously.

"It's hard to explain," the transgenic said defensively.

Mole was unimpressed. "Try," he said, vaguely making it a threat.

Luke swallowed. He held up the piece of equipment that he had been working on. "Okay, this is the Thermo-scan."

"It _was_ the Thermo-scan. Now it couldn't scan the gas from an anomaly's fart," Mole said around his cigar. "Because you broke it."

"Oh for wailing out loud, would you _drop _it. I didn't break it. It was all part of the method."

"Yeah, like I believe that," the lizard commando scoffed, which was a pretty amazing feet with the brown stub still in his mouth.

Track had got up from the stool and crossed the room to stand next to Mole and look over Luke's shoulder.

"Could you stop crunching so loud in my ear?" Luke snapped at the blonde transgenic, who in response took an almighty chomp of the fruit and smacked his lips with every chew. Luke sighed, and without turning around said, "Don't touch that Joshua."

It was too late however. There was a snap, and then the sound of glass breaking.

"Tell me it wasn't the lamp," Luke said through clenched teeth.

"It wasn't the lamp," Track supplied easily around a mouthful of apple, but one look at Mole's smirk told Luke that it was.

Luke groaned. "Do you have any _idea _how hard it is to find light bulbs?"

"Joshua sorry."

Luke sighed again and grumbled to himself about respect. "It's okay, Joshua. Just, don't touch anything else, okay?"

"Joshua not touch anything."

Track and Mole turned back to Luke when he began his explanation. "Okay, I the original chip that had been in this scanner had bro – I mean, I had cracked methodically, on purpose, is fixed," Luke said as he swiveled around in his chair and turned the scanner on Joshua.

Joshua froze with wide eyes and quit breathing. "Joshua said sorry! Don't shoot. Joshua don't want to DIE!"

The three ignored him as Luke clicked the power on. There was a loud bang causing everyone to jump. Joshua started wailing and clutching at his chest as he staggered around and tripped over the lamp that he had broken. Luke swore and started inspecting the Thermo-scan until a voice from the door stopped everything. The huddled transgenics looked up in unison, and Joshua stopped shouting about being too young to die.

"You guys seen Max?" Alec asked in a frustrated voice.

"Joshua not seen Little Fella all morning," Joshua said cheerfully from the floor where he was tangled up in the cord of the lamp.

Alec tilted his head to the side and looked down, noticing the big guy for the first time. "You okay there Big Fella?"

"Joshua fine," Joshua said, working at getting himself untangled.

Alec just raised his eyebrows and turned back to the other transgenics in the room.

"I haven't had the misfortune of seeing Queen B since yesterday," Mole said, taking his cigar out and tapping it, using the floor as an ashtray to Luke's immense annoyance.

Track just shrugged and took another bite of his apple.

Alec glared at them until Luke spoke up.

"She came in here this morning. She was acting a little weird."

Alec tensed. "Weird, how?"

Luke shrugged, feeling under the spotlight and unable to concentrate with Track's chomping, Mole's puffing, and Joshua's scuffs and grunts.

Alec was focused. "Think! Was she acting weird like, 'I'm Maxie and I'm on a mission to save the world weird'? Or was it weird like, 'Hi, I'm X5-452, not-like-that girlfriend of RollerBoy, and I have a perpetual stick up my butt weird'. Or was she weird like how she gets when she has this – "

"Weird, like the first one! And she brought me coffee," Luke said quickly, trying to get Alec to stop talking.

"She brought you coffee," Alec repeated in a dead tone.

Luke fidgeted. "Yeah, it was really weird, but she did seem to have something on her mind."

"Huh, when did you see her? Maybe Logan already got a hold of her. What time did she come in? Was it before…" Alec trailed off and pulled out his cellphone. "Before 9ish?"

Again, Luke shrugged. "Maybe."

"Maybe?" Alec asked, his voice getting a little hysterical. "Maybe!" He strode over to where Luke was sitting and grabbed his shoulders. "You listen here you little punk. I've been outside in the cold since 9 o'clock this morning looking for her! And it's like she's a ghost. No one has seen her today except for you! So I need you to turn on that oversized brain of yours and think just a little bit hard because I am at the end of my rope here!" Alec was breathing heavily by the time he finished his tirade.

Everyone else in the room was frozen.

Finally, Luke said, "Uh, she was looking for Dix this morning."

"Dix," Alec repeated under his breath, already heading for the door, which he yanked from the wall and shut it behind him. A little plaster fell from the hole the handle had left.

"Great, just great," Luke said. "Does nobody have any respect for a man's cave?"

"You're not a man." Mole said instinctively, still staring distractedly at the door. He took his cigar out of his mouth and grinned. "I feel sorry for Dix if he doesn't know where Max is."

"You sound sorry," Luke said sarcastically. "I'm just glad that he didn't ask where to find Dix. I haven't found out yet where he hides himself."

"Guys? Little help. Joshua not like the cord. It reminds Joshua of snakes, and Joshua NOT like snakes!"

"Hey," Track snapped his fingers suddenly. "Do you guys think that Alec seemed a little bit off today?"

"Princess is always off when it comes to the Queen B," Mole said, and finally turned from the door to glare at Track. "Just eat your apple, Blondie."

Track flipped him the bird.

"Guys, guys," Luke said. "Can we please just go back – "

"Joshua HATE SNAKES!"

" – to what we were doing before?"

Mole and Track shared a look and shrugged. They all hunched over to look at the device's monitor. The screen showed a large writhing mass of bright orange, rolling around on the floor, fighting a cord.

"Now, it reads the body temperature, ergo the name, Thermo-scan," Luke said. "And since the transgenics' body temp runs normally over a hundred, this thing filters us out like spam."

"Or," Track said loudly, after gulping down a mouthful of fruit, "It filters the Ordinaries out like spam."

Luke and Mole paused to give him a blank look.

"You know," Track swallowed and continued uncomfortably. "There are too many and they're junk, get it? …but we're more special and…" Luke's eyebrows were high, and Mole's eyes were narrowed. "Rare…never mind. Continue."

"Are you sure?" Mole shot out, never one to miss a beat.

"Ruddy positive," was the mumbled response followed by another loud crunch of apple.

"Oookaaay," Luke said, trying to regain his thought. "Anyway, so before I fixed, err, pieced the chip back together – "

"Methodically, on purpose," Track supplied.

"Exactly," Luke smiled. "Mole gave me the idea to use another chip of the same size, which was brilliant, really-"

"Kiss-up," Mole interjected.

" – and so I used the chip from Track's cell phone – "

"Which I'm still waiting to get back by the way," Track quipped.

"ARE YOU TWO FINISHED?" Luke snapped.

There was a small silence.

Luke let out a breath and switched out the two chips. "Now, look what happens when we use Track's chip."

Once more, Luke took the device and aimed it at Joshua who froze once more, but wasn't nearly as scared. Luke turned on the power. …silence.

"Nothing happened," Track said, confused.

"Gee, good call oh wise one. Do you do palm readings too?" Mole grouched.

"Only on Tuesdays, sweets, and for a price," Track gave back as good as he got with a leering grin.

"Really, you two are worse than Max and Alec," Luke said with as much patience as he could muster.

Track grinned and casually slung an arm around the much taller transgenic. "I schedule our weekly couple's therapy session an hour after I read his palms. Doc says we're improving by jumps and bounds."

"Jumps and bounds? I thought it was leaps and dashes…" Mole said thoughtfully and then scowled. "Get your arm off of me Blondie, before I rip it off of you and use it as my new butt scratcher."

Track leapt away with a shudder.

Mole turned back to Luke. "So what you're saying is that we use the chips from cell phones?"

"Well, yeah…" Luke said.

"Won't work," Mole said gruffly.

Track jumped in, holding his hands up at Luke's defensive face. "He's right, Luke. Think about it. Let's say that first off, we somehow manage to walk up to every Thermo-scanner in the city and take the five minutes – at least – to replace the working chip with the dud chips, though, I can tell you right now, that will be impossible, but just for amusement's sake, let's say we do. They are going to figure out that their scanners aren't picking up _anything _and they are going to replace them."

"Replace them?" Luke repeated. "Do you have any idea how much one of these cost?"

"Okay," Track conceded. "But there's still no way that we can walk up to every store owner, Familiar, government agent, sector cop, and paranoid granny that owns one and ask them if we could just borrow their Thermo-scan for a few seconds while we break it."

Luke frowned, and Mole clapped him roughly on the back. "Well, I gotta go bully some X6's into getting me some cigs."

Mole walked out of the room with his shotgun slung over his shoulder and trailing a path of smoke.

Track patted him more sympathetically. "You did your best. I guess your best just wasn't enough."

"Just eat your apple," Luke snapped.

Track gave him a mischievous wink and walked out, chomping away.

Luke let out a breath. Finally, silence.

"Can Joshua move now?"

DARKANGELDARKANGELDARKANGEL

"What's wrong with ITT?" Logan asked incredulously, looking down at the paper with a frown.

"It's what TC used to be," Max started.

"I know. They used to supply the whole town with medicine. They saved a lot of lives," Logan said defensively.

Max eyes flew to him and focused intently. "Logan," she started slowly. "What's ITT to you?"

Logan paused and looked up as well, catching the sudden tension. He seemed to think a long time about his answer. "Nothing, I guess. It's just that you're about to tell me something bad about them and I'm going to have to change the way I've been thinking for the last twenty years." Logan scowled down at the paper. "Can you believe I actually volunteered and held fundraisers for these people? I always defended them on my Eyes Only broadcasts as being the only straight pharmaceutical supplies out there…the schmucks."

Max gave him a calculated look. "Uh…you don't usually overreact like this. You don't even know what they've done."

"Neither do you," Logan countered, " Or you wouldn't have brought it to me."

"They could still be innocent," Max suggested.

Logan scoffed. "Like anyone could be innocent when tied to Manticore." He looked up at her then. "They are tied to Manticore, right? I mean, I don't want to imply that you're on a one track mind set centered on Manticore, but Max…you're kind of on a one-track mind set centered on – "

"I get it," Max snapped. "Just like you're an Eyes Only guru."

"Hey," Logan said, offended. "I'm just trying to watch out for my people."

"I am too!"

There was a silence, and then Logan chuckled. "Touché." The smile wiped from his face, and he sighed again. "Twenty years of ideals and beliefs. Max, it's like you just killed Santa Claus, or something."

Max gave him a soft punch to the arm. "Good. Self-disillusionment is unhealthy."

Logan rolled his eyes. He backed away from the door, allowing her inside, and headed over to his computer amidst a cacophony of whirls as the cogs in the exoskeleton worked.

Max followed him.

He sat down in his chair and handed her a stack of papers. She pushed a stack of papers aside on his cluttered desk and sat down, looking over the paperwork.

Logan, who had watched her with raised eyebrows, said, "Just make yourself at home."

The sarcasm was lost on Max, who hummed distractedly, her eyes never leaving the paper. And then, she looked up when she read something that made her eyes widen. "The Declaration of Independence?"

Logan lifted a shoulder. "That's what I think. It's making a three week tour across the country, going through the museums in order to spark an interest in the population. It's some sort of stimulus plan that the president thinks will work."

Max looked up from where she was reading. "You don't think it will work."

"I don't know. It could. I mean, I want people to have pride in America again, but…I think it is still too soon. There are too many mobs. I think it will get stolen and passed around from bidder to bidder trying to get the best price."

"Okay, so what do you want me to do, wait for it to get stolen and then steal it back? You usually wait for it to get stolen before you call me."

"I know, but this is its first stop. They're starting it from the West Coast and working their way to the East, hitting all the major cities. There's no way for me to monitor it once it leaves here. It would be too difficult to call on all of my contacts and watch all of the major players in other town gangs."

"So, say I stop it from getting stolen here, it wouldn't make a difference because they would just move it on to the next town, and then the town after that. We wouldn't be able to follow it all the way back to DC without looking suspicious."

"That's about right, except I think that if they were to notice it was stolen, they wouldn't risk it anymore and would put it on an express trip back to DC."

"Logan I don't think I'm getting all of what you're saying."

Logan fidgeted in his chair a little bit. "I want people to be able to enjoy it, but I also don't want it being sold to the highest foreign bidder."

"And the only way you can do that is to make sure it doesn't get stolen?"

Logan didn't answer at first. "Theoretically, that would be ideal," he finally said.

"But you can't keep an eye on it once it leaves Seattle," Max finished.

"Ergo, my dilemma," Logan said back, uneasily.

"But you already know what you're going to do," Max said suddenly, catching his eye.

"Yes."

"Fine," Max said. "Okay. If the ideal situation would be to make sure it doesn't get stolen, but we can't do that…then the only other way would be to make sure it gets sent back to DC. And to do that…you would have to make sure it got stolen."

"Not just stolen," Logan added. "It needs to be stolen so that I know it can be retrieved easily."

"Okay, so you want me to watch it and tail whoever steals it," Max guessed.

"There's no guarantee that anyone will make a move for it here. And it needs to be stolen in our city."

"Alright," Max said slowly. It was like all of the letters were there, but she couldn't put them together into any words that made sense.

Logan let out a loud breath and then met Max's eyes. "Max, I want you to steal the Declaration of Independence."


	14. S03E14 Organized Crime

**(AN: Important, for those of you who haven't read the books, this section contains information from the companion series to Dark Angel written by Max Collins – particularly the first book where it explains Max's life after the '09 escape and before she met Logan. For a very brief recap and to get a feel for what the first book contains, here is a summary of parts that will be important to this series:**

**Written by Max Allan Collins, a trilogy of novels expands upon the Dark Angel television series.**

**Dark Angel: Before the Dawn (2002) is a prequel to the television series, taking a detailed look at Max's past between 2009 and 2019. It introduced another '09 escapee, Seth. After Max and her siblings had escaped, Seth slipped out in the confusion and eventually ended up in Seattle, where he worked for Logan as a personal agent. (from )**

**_Max lives in LA with a band of thieves known as the Clan ranging from ages 14 to 60. She is the star thief. Most of the Clan is younger children. There is another thieving gang, antagonist to Max's group known as the Breed. The Breed is a much more organized crime group. They have skyscrapers as headquarters whereas the Clan live out their ragtag lives in an old theater. The book actually starts out with Max breaking into maximum security to steal the Heart of the Ocean (necklace from Titanic). This is where Max got all of her better than average (even compared to transgenics) heisting skills and extensive art knowledge, by being Moody's, the oldest thief in charge of the Clan, protégé. Eventually, Max catches a glimpse of one of her "brothers" on some hoverdrone feed in Seattle, so she leaves the Clan. The "brother" that she saw on the news was X5-751, Seth. Seth was working for Logan in order to get information on the other escapees, just like Max does in the beginning of Season 1. It is actually by Logan's wishes to pursue some criminals that Seth is killed – though Max doesn't know that, and Logan never tells her. (IF anyone else was confused about how Logan knew so much about transgenics during the pilot, yet have nothing on the other 09ers, Max Collins does a nice job of explaining it this way…although I cried when he killed off Seth.)_**

**Okay, so that was a brief description of the book. I'll try to insinuate flashbacks to clear certain aspects up, I just wanted people to know where it was coming from and that my imagination wasn't _that _vast. So, for those of you who have read the books, I claim no ownership over recognizable facts and people…just borrowing.**

**And with that extremely long author's note…onward with the story.**

**PREVIOUSLY ON DARK ANGEL**

**"_Alec, this is Logan."_**

**"Logan! Yeah…I thought I recognized the number. What's up, buddy?"**

**"_Alec, this is important. Do you know where Max is?"_**

**"Is this some kind of Eyes Only thing?"**

**"_Yes, actually. It is. Can you find her?" _**

**"I'm going. I'm going. Hold your wheel chair…shit, wait, Logan, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"**

**"_Just have Max call me when you find her." _**

**DARKANGEL**

**"It is obvious to me that this 452 is an abnormal case and needs to be taken care of. Immediately."**

**"Yes, sir."**

**"Good, good. Now, what have you planned."**

**"The Canadian Phalanx member, Connor O'Donnell, has been tailing some of her friends. We will figure out her schedule, so we can ambush her."**

**"And if she never leaves?"**

**"Well, senator…we'll just have to lure her out."**

**DARKANGEL**

**"What's this…_thing, _worth to you?"**

**"_Are you asking me for _money, _Max_? _Because you know I don't have a lot of that anymore."_**

**"No, I'm not asking you for money. Look, Logan. I know we're trying to get back to this whole I-scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine, so I'll make you a deal. I'll go off on this whack mission of yours…if you look up this thing for me."**

**"_Deal."_**

**DARKANGEL**

**"You guys seen Max?"**

**"Maybe."**

**"Maybe? Maybe! You listen here you little punk. I've been outside in the cold, pouring rain since 9 o'clock this morning looking for her! And it's like she's a ghost. No one has seen her today except for you! So I need you to turn on that oversized brain of yours and think just a little bit harder because I am at the end of my rope here!"**

**DARKANGEL**

**"Now, it reads the body temperature, ergo the name, Thermo-scan," Luke said. "And since the transgenics' body temp runs normally over a hundred, this thing filters us out like spam."**

**"So what you're saying is that we use the chips from cell phones?"**

**"Well, yeah…"**

**"Won't work. Think about it. Let's say that first off, we somehow manage to walk up to every Thermo-scanner in the city and take the five minutes – at least – to replace the working chip with the dud chips. They are going to figure out that their scanners aren't picking up _anything _and they are going to replace them."**

**"You did your best. I guess your best just wasn't enough."**

**DARKANGEL**

**"The Declaration of Independence?"**

**"It's making a three week tour across the country, going through the museums in order to spark an interest in the population. It's some sort of stimulus plan that the president thinks will work."**

**"If the ideal situation would be to make sure it doesn't get stolen, but we can't do that…then the only other way would be to make sure it gets sent back to DC. And to do that…you would have to make sure it got stolen."**

**"Not just stolen. It needs to be stolen so that I know it can be retrieved easily."**

**"I don't think I get what you're saying."**

**"Max, I want you to steal the Declaration of Independence."**

**DARKANGEL**

END PREVIOUS CLIPS

PRESENT TIME

"Alright, and thank you for choosing JamPony," Normal went to hang up, but something the person on the other end of the line forced him to keep the line open. "Yes, we are well aware of the risks. We at JamPony are completely dedicated to our job. Your package will be one hundred percent safe with our runners." Normal winced, his eyes following the arc of one of the "precious" packages as it sailed across the room and hit the back of the intended, yet oblivious target in the back of the head, much to the boisterous amusement of the onlookers.

"As careful as an intern during open-heart surgery," Normal replied in answer to the caller while he was gesticulating violently to get his young slackers back to work. They seemed to ignore him, but scattered nonetheless, the guy still rubbing the back of his head retrieving the package off the floor before they took off.

"Well, let's not bring my mother into this now ma'am…" Normal warned. He rolled his eyes as his two least favorite employees stepped up and leaned on his desk. He shooed them away with his hands, but they were nonplussed by his tactics anymore – the reason they were most difficult and his least favorite. "I'm sure. You have a nice day ma'am," Normal said over the high pitched squealing as he hung up the line.

The shorter of two workers in front of him raised her eyebrows at him. "Did the uppity-up high morale Normal just hang up on a good-paying customer?"

Her partner in crime folded his arms as he leaned against the wall with a smug smirk on his lips. "Me thinks he did."

Normal ignored them, searching around his drawers for an envelope.

"What the _hell _kinda shit was that ya fool?"

"Why Miss Cindy, it was Shakespearian. I know you fellow misanthropes like to think of me as some brainless, though extremely good-looking body, but I do like to keep myself educated in all matters of subject. It is always a progressive day when I can further my education," was the matter-of-fact response to her question.

Normal rolled his eyes heavenward, but he finally found an envelope so he schooled his features and sat up, grabbing for a pen.

"Say," said Sketchy, noticing his boss's intense focus. "What's up, Bossman?"

Normal paused in what he was writing and sat up to stick his head out of his booth. He looked around and didn't see anyone lingering around. He sat back and looked up at his workers whose faces had gone serious.

"I got a pick-up for you delinquents out in sector 2."

"A pick-up?" Sketchy questioned, and then smiled conspiratorially and winked. "Oh, you mean a hot, _hot _pick-up."

OC hit him in the back of the head. "And you wonder why we think you ain't got nothin' but rocks bumpin' between ya ears…damn fool."

Normal let out a sigh. "Yes, it's one of those."

"Wait," Cindy started. "Sector 2? That's all the way across town!"

Normal paused writing and raised his eyes to look up at her. "And. Your point?"

"Have you _looked _outside lately?" Cindy's eyes were large and round as she gestured to the front entrance where the ramp and open door was.

It was dark out now, but you could still hear the rain pouring down in torrents, making the bicycle slope a slippery mess. To his great amusement, Normal had already seen four of his workers go down trying to stop too quickly and, as a result, lose their traction. Normal's lips stretched into a smile in memory.

Normal wiped the smile off his face as he turned back to look at Cindy. "Raining? In Seattle? Somebody stop the fire truck! Why don't you go find a seat and prop your feet up. Oh, and while you're at it, why don't we do our nails together!" Normal said excitedly, clapping his hands together.

OC glared at him and snatched up the envelope from his hand. "We're taking the truck."

Normal folded his arms. "You most certainly are _not _going to take the company truck."

"How are we supposed to use bikes to pick up three – "

"Ha, ha. The boxes aren't that big, Cindy," Sketchy said loudly.

She turned to glare at him but his eyes were focused past her shoulder on a fellow JamPony runner who had just come in and was shaking his coat out. He looked up and shot Sketchy a wary glance and then walked back to his locker.

Cindy turned back, ready to start in again, but Normal was already holding a set of keys out for her to take. She gave him a weary look, not making a move to grab jingling metal. "What changed your mind?"

"Nothing," Normal shrugged. "You're still not taking the company truck on this run. You _can _take my van though."

Cindy's expression turned sour. "That hunk of – "

"Ah, ah, ah. Do you want to use her or not?" Normal threatened.

Cindy paused. "_Her?"_

"Yes," Normal said, "Her name is Frieda."

Sketchy looked offended. "That's a horrible name."

"It matches the car," OC mumbled out, still glaring at her boss.

"I'm warning you," Normal started. "You're not going to drive her if you keep at it."

"But – "

"No buts," Normal said, starting to take back the keys.

A skinny brown arm shot out to grab the keys from his hands. "We'll take it."

Normal hid a grin at the look on her face. "Just so you know," he advised. "She won't run if she hears you talking about her like that."

OC turned back to him, her face incredulous. "You gotta be kidding. OC is _not _sweet-talking no hunk o' junk, scrap metal, future dump-truck resident, EPA target – "

Normal raised his hands. "Hey, I'm just trying to pass on a piece of advice. Take it how you will."

"Oh, Cindy'll take it and shove it so far up your uppity-up, pale-white – "

Sketchy grabbed her arm and started dragging her off. "We'll be gentle with her. Catch ya later, Bossman!"

"Let me go, ya fool. Original Cindy's on a roll…" came the fading sound of OC's voice.

Normal smiled to himself, already turning back to sort out packages.

Squee-BOOM!

Normal turned around when he heard a groan and his smile widened at another miscreant employee sprawled under his bike on the floor.

Oh yeah, today was going to be a good day.

The TV from the team room fuzzed out for a second before the news was cut off completely, catching Normal's attention. A blue, white, and red screen with two eyes popped up.

DARKANGELDARKANGELDARKANGEL

"Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a Streaming Freedom Video Bulletin. The cable hack will last exactly sixty seconds. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and it is the only free voice left in this city.

"As some of you might know, the president has decided to circulate some of the country's finest to boost morale. As we speak, a document so important that it is considered monumental is being flown out on a private jet to visit the city of Seattle as the first stop of a three-week tour. As US citizens and residents of Seattle, we are both honored and humbled. But there are people out there who would be more interested in seeing this document traded off for some quick cash. At this very moment, there is a group of terrorists planning to do this exactly.

"Eyes Only has taken it up personally to see to it that this does not happen. We will not tolerate this terrorism. The appropriate authority figures will be contacted shortly. Peace out."

Logan hit a button on his remote and the feed cut off. He looked over at Max who had her arms crossed across her chest and one hip cocked against his desk.

"What?" he asked.

Max cocked an eyebrow. "So I'm a terrorist now?"

Logan gave her an overly patient look as he turned to type rapidly on his computer. "It's state protocol that if anyone calls in and starts throwing around the word 'terrorist' that they have to look into it."

"Right, so tell me again why you risked White tracking your ass instead of calling in as an anonymous tip."

Logan pulled something up on the screen. It was a black box. Immediately he started typing in algorithms that even as an X5 were rather complicated for Max. "This way, it's more serious. Now they know I'm not just Billy the Hobo calling in for fun."

Max scoffed. "Logan Cale, having fun?"

Logan stopped typing to glare at her. "Don't you have something that you were supposed to be doing?"

Max looked away and picked up something on his desk and messed with it. "Finished it about, oh, say," she mimicked looking at a watch, "four hours ago."

Logan, who had gone back to typing, stopped and turned to look at her.

Max, feeling his stare, looked up. "What?"

"You already found out where they're going to hide the Declaration? …how?"

Max grinned. "Trade secret. If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

"Cute," Logan deadpanned but continued to stare at her.

"So," Max said, uncomfortable under his stare. "What are you doing now?"

Logan held up a hand and turned back as he hit a button. He pushed another button and suddenly the sound of a phone ringing filled the room.

"_Yeah, Hawthorne Yates."_

"Hawthorne Yates, this is Eyes Only."

Max raised her eyebrows at the colorful swearing that followed.

"_How did you get past my secretary? Or past all of the support staff, for that matter? I gave them orders to phone tag you and enjoy their selves. It's not every day they get permission from the boss to give people a hard time. You should have been on hold for a good six hours before I had to deal with you!"_

Logan's face dropped into a slight scowl. "So you are just trying to sweep me under the rug until you had the Declaration already in the city that way you could tell me, 'Nope, sorry, too late.' Do you even care whether or not it gets stolen?"

"_Of course I care! It's in my job description to protect this country's history. And I damn well take it seriously! Not like you and your patriotic Halloween mask! You wanna do a favor for your country? Quit stirrin' things beyond repair. I have the president yelling at me for being made into a fool in a very public manner by a very influential figure, Homeland Security is breathing down my neck about pulling the Declaration back, and now I got local authorities complainin' cuz you got people protestin' in mass riots. If anyone were to steal the Declaration, you certainly haven't done anything yet to hinder 'em. All you've done is stretched my sources."_

"I have not! You need to be panicking. I'm telling you there is a whole group of terrorists planning the greatest heist they will ever come by! You need to tell them to turn that jet around before it's too late."

"_I can't!"_

"I know it might be difficult, but surely, you of all people would understand the risk here-"

"_No, I'm not saying, 'I can't,' as in I won't do it. It's already too late, son. The Declaration has been in Seattle for nearly two hours now."_

Logan froze. His eyes flicked over to Max for confirmation. She gave a barely perceptible nod. "Oh. I see."

"_Now, all I can say about the terrorist group is they can try to steal the damn thing, but they're gonna need a whole army to get past my guys. We have the best of the best in both man and computer power. Now if you really wanted to help, since you claim to know so much about this alleged terrorist group, you could start by telling me all you know about them."_

"I'm sorry," Logan said, flicking his eyes over to Max. "I can't do that," he said and hung up. "Why didn't you tell me that the Declaration was already here?"

"And take away the shock in your voice when he told you it was? No way. He already thinks you're a terrorist."

The furrow didn't quite leave his eyebrows, but he did change the subject. "So, do you really think that you can still break in and get this thing?" Logan asked, his worried eyes following Max as she walked into the kitchen to rummage through his cabinets.

"I'll be fine," Max called back, deep into her task of selecting a real, honest-to-God apple from the _dozen _or so he had in the basket. "Nice apples."

Logan frowned. "Yeah, Asha and the S1W had a raid on a high-end commissioner. Spoils of war," he said distractedly. "Now about the-"

"How is Asha these days? I haven't heard from her in a while." Max cut Logan off before he could respond with a groan as she bit into the apple. "I'm in heaven. It's been years since I had an apple. One of the X's got their hands on a couple dozen apples the other day, but I'm pretty sure Track, an annoyingly observant transgenic, took them all."

"Yes, that's nice. And Asha's nice. We're all nice. So how do you know-"

"Did you know that we're down to oatmeal and rice at TC? This Thermo-scanner is whack. It's seriously cutting into our culinary supplies. I mean how's a girl supposed to jack some grub if she can't walk down the street without being-"

"Max, please! I'm trying to discuss how you plan to break through Hawthorne Yates's defenses. It sounded like he was pretty confident a whole team couldn't do it."

"That's because a whole team wouldn't be able to do it. The less people you have, the better your chances are."

"I don't know, Max," Logan said skeptically. "I just think-"

Max finally returned to the living room, apple in hand. "Logan! Calm down. You came to me for this job. Trust that I can do it." She held his stare until he nodded. "Besides, I know for a fact that I can steal the document."

Logan's eyes narrowed. "You know for a…fact?"

Max grinned. "Trade secret," she said, taking a bite out of the apple.

Logan's expression deepened. "I know, I know. If you told me, you'd have to kill me."

Max reached up and patted his cheek. "See? He does learn."

DARKANGELDARKANGELDARKANGEL

"Oh, there you are! Oh, I was so worried about you. I thought you had been – oh, well never mind that now. C'mon over here, Adam. I made you a nice big steak, and your favorite," she enticed taking something out of the oven, "Peach cobbler."

Zack couldn't help but grin at the woman. Despite the fact the he had been on a mission, he had no choice, really, other than to make his way over.

She smiled at him over the dish she held in two gloved hands.

"Thank you, ma'am."

The small woman frowned. "Now how many times have I told you, Adam, it's either Mary or Mama."

"Yes, ma'am."

She saw the twinkle in his eye. "Why you cheeky, little – "

Zack stepped up and gave her a side-hug, always careful of the food, and dropped a kiss to the top of her head.

Her feathers soothed, she smiled again at him. "Now, you go sit at the table while I scoop you up a nice, healthy serving of Mama's Peach Cobbler."

Zack grinned and saluted. "Yes, Maa'aam!"

He hurried over to the table, deftly avoiding her swatting spoon, and sat down. He took the time to look around the place once more, never able to get enough. When his memories had still been gone, he had enjoyed the quiet country life, but he didn't truly appreciate it until he realized what his life had really been like before. Out here in the country, the pace was relaxed, people were hard, honest workers, the animals never changed, and the only person who had a secret agenda was Howard, the mayor who Zack had found out, by accident, was having an affair.

Zack most liked how the sun always seemed to shine here. It still rained a fair bit, and there were definitely cloudy days, but it was just a bright place to live. All of his memories of Manticore were in dull grays and blues. His life after the escape was all colors and blurs, having always been on the run and never being able to stop. Here, everything was vibrant and clear. He had a routine and habits. He knew which step creaked and which floorboards to avoid if he was trying to sneak out in the night for a bit of fresh air after waking up from nightmares. Nightmares that until recently, he had thought were made up.

But they weren't. They were the reality. _This _life was the dream. And he wanted it. He really did, but he didn't belong here. Maybe he could belong here, to a life of peace, but not yet. Not when there was a fight still to be fought. Things were brewing in Seattle. The soldier in Zack was well aware of this, and it was also the soldier that wouldn't let him leave his team alone to fight.

He _had _to go back.

He jumped as a ceramic bowl was sat down in front of him. His life here had relaxed him, softened him. Normally, he wouldn't have allowed himself to be so distracted. Now, middle-aged wives could sneak up on him. Carrying aromatic food.

He hadn't even felt the urge to defend himself. And that would get him killed. But for now, he ignored it and looked at the cobbler Mary had made him. The peaches he had picked himself, and it made the dish that much more rewarding. It was covered in oats and brown sugar, and there was a nice dollop of ice cream to the side, made from cream he had milked.

Zack sent her a smile of thanks and dug in.

"Sweetie," Mary started, pulling out a chair to sit down.

He waited for her to continue, but when she didn't he looked up and caught her eyes. She was giving him a hard look.

He smiled, trying to joke, uncomfortable with her look. "There's something on my face isn't there?" he asked, swiping at his mouth.

She didn't smile.

He stopped, bringing his arm back down. "What's wrong?"

"You're leaving me, aren't you?"

Zack froze. That wasn't good. How much did these people know? He always wondered how they had taken him in. Did they know what he was? Or could she read his face? That was probably worse than them knowing what he was. Being able to hide his thoughts and emotions was vital. "I don't know what you're talking about – "

"Adam Thompson, don't you _dare _lie to me!" Mary warned in a voice that automatically made him obey. "I raised four boys before you. I know when a boy's trying to fool his mama."

Her look was stern, but Zack was too preoccupied to see it. He had thought the only thing that he was going to miss from this place was maybe the sense of security, but he had been so very wrong.

Before he could answer, she was carrying on. "You remember, don't you." It wasn't a question, so he didn't answer. "You're going back to Seattle. You're going to go fight that army."

She was breathing hard, having a panic attack now. Zack didn't care what she knew. He sat up and grabbed her shoulders, giving her a stern shake. "Calm down. You have to calm down. Breathe," he instructed calmly. She did. "Exhale."

She let out her breath slowly, tears in her eyes. When she had regained her breathing she pushed his hands off her shoulders. Zack felt unsure for a moment. She had always been the one hugging him and getting him to be more comfortable around people. Did she not want him to touch her now that he remembered how to kill?

But those thoughts were ridiculous, he realized, when she pulled him into a hug and started crying. "I lost all four of my babies in war. I don't want to lose you, too."

Zack could count on one hand the number of times he had cried, and they had all centered around Max. He hadn't even cried when Eva, his best friend, had been shot by Lydecker. But he felt a tear fall down his cheek.

He squeezed her hard and buried his face in her hair. "I have to go."

She nodded and leaned back to hold him at arm's length so she could study his face. "Yes, I know. You have the same spirit they did. I can no more hold you back than I could them."

Tears were still leaking down her eyes. She gave a small laugh and swiped at them. "God, I'm such a mess. Excuse me." She stood up, but hesitated and said, "Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back."

Zack nodded, and watched her walk away. He looked back down at his bowl, and for the first time ever, couldn't finish Mama's Peach Cobbler. He took his bowl to the sink where washed and dried it. Still, Mary hadn't returned. She didn't like people to see her cry. She thought it made her seem weak, and Zack would have agreed before.

Now, he thought it made her stronger, that she could feel all of this emotion and still smile everyday like she did. It was amazing, and he had told her so one time. She had laughed at him, called him a little teddy bear, and punched his arm. From then on, if he had caught her in one of her sons' room, he had pretended he hadn't seen the misty eyes.

Not one to waste any time, Zack went upstairs to gather up his duffel bag of clothes and bring it downstairs.

Mary was sitting at the table with her back to him, looking out the window. He made his steps louder as he approached, trying not to startle her. He watched as her shoulders relaxed.

"I thought you had taken off without saying goodbye," she said, with her back still to him.

"I wouldn't do that to you."

She hmm-ed, but didn't elaborate.

"Okay, maybe I had been planning on it," he admitted. "But I wouldn't have left you after I said I wouldn't."

"No. Adam wouldn't do that would he?"

Zack stiffened a little. "About that, how did you know?"

She lifted a hand. "I only know what Buddy told me. He said that some friends of yours had to swipe your memories for your own good. I'm not sure why anyone would do something so drastic as that, but I do know that it happened. Buddy took you in as a favor to a friend." She turned back to face him. "I didn't want you, at first. I could tell you were different." Zack tried not to get hurt by that. "I watched you closely for a week straight, always finding things to do where I could keep an eye on you. And I just…you always looked at things with such amazement. Everything was like the most precious prize in the whole world in your eyes. And I just adopted you."

Zack felt a lump in his throat.

Mary carried on. "I may not know everything about you. But I don't have to. I know enough…Zack."

Zack didn't move for the longest time.

"You're…you're one of those trans - "

"Don't," Zack said, sharper than he had intended. Softer, he added, "It's safer if you don't know too much."

She nodded after a while. "Well, come give me a hug."

He dropped his bag to the floor and hugged her tight.

She pulled away after a minute with a sniffle. "I packed you some cobbler in Tupperware. And I grabbed you some clean socks and underwear from the laundry room in case you need them." She looked indecisive for a minute, but then plowed on. "You won't be able to call me, will you?"

Zack heard the underlying question, which was: "This is the last time I'll see you, isn't it?"

"It's unsafe," Zack said with a nod.

She took a breath to gather herself as she pulled something out of her pocket. Subconsciously, Zack realized, the thought that it could be a gun hadn't even crossed his mind. She handed an envelope to him. He looked inside and saw a stack of 20's and a ring of keys. He held the ring of metal up in askance.

She smiled. "I want you to take the Buick. It's a good car. It'll get you at least halfway there if you keep an eye on the oil level." She looked at his face and held up her hands. "Don't even. You need it more than we do. You know we make plenty of money. Our produce is a hot commodity, you know. Everyone wants fresh food."

Zack smiled at her. He initiated the hug this time. "Thank you for everything."

"It's nothing."

"Will you pass my gratitude on to Buddy?"

"Why don't you tell him yourself? You can wait for tomorrow. I'll make a big breakfast," she offered, though she acted like she knew the answer.

"I feel better leaving at night. I don't know how long it'll take me to get to Seattle, but I know it's going to be a long time. And I'm not sure how much time they have left."

She nodded. "I better not see your face in the news, you hear me boy?"

He smiled at her. "Yes, ma'am," he said softly and used every ounce of will power to walk out the door.

DARKANGELDARKANGELDARKANGEL

Max was glad that it had stopped raining for a little bit as she looked up at the decrepit building with a seasoned eye. A lot of people wouldn't think that this health-hazard structure would be housing a document so important to the country of the United States of America, but Max knew better. She had been taught by one of the best thieves and connoisseurs of rare works in the state of California. Hiding the Declaration of Independence this building was something Moody had called "hiding in plain sight."

Max smiled sadly. She could almost hear Moody's voice as he preached to the Clan: If you leave a million dollars in a nice shiny corvette, it'll probably get stolen. If you leave a million dollars in a broken down "Tommy-the-train, 'I think I can'," car…well, most likely, no one will spare the car a second glance unless it's to say, "God, that's a piece of crap."

God, she missed them.

"_You know, you never did tell me how you knew so much about thieving."_

Max, pulled abruptly from her thoughts, shook her head and grinned as she blew a bubble before letting it pop.

"Can't tell, ya," Max said. "It would hurt Eyes Only's delicate sensibilities and ideals of morality."

"_Very funny, Max. I'm serious. Unless they teach you this in Manticore, which they don't because half of the X5's I've met were not nearly as savvy with breaking-and-entering like a certain transgenic I know – then you had to have picked this up somewhere along the line. Who taught you?"_

Max watched as a large gardening van rolled up in front of her, blocking her view of the building. She suddenly sat up straight.

"No way," Max mumbled to herself as she watched a figure emerge from the van and walk up to the broken-down porch of the building.

"_What? What's happening?"_

Max was still dumbfounded as her pupils dilated to zoom in on the person in grass-stained overalls. "What are you up to?_" _

"_Max. Max, what's going on?"_

Max continued to look at the man as he stood on the front porch of the broken building. He rang the doorbell. Max sat back, shocked. "Some poor schmuck thinks he can steal the Declaration."

"_You're kidding me…"_

"Definitely not."

"_It's broad daylight outside!"_

"I know."

"_Well, does he seem dangerous? How's he going to do it?"_

"The only visible weapon I can see would be his clipboard. As for how he's going to get past the front door, well, apparently by ringing the bell."

"_Unbelievable."_

Max nodded. "I know, I mean, his cover's not even _remotely _possible. There is no way that a person who'd live in a house like that would hire a groundskeeper. He's gonna get himself shot like that. Yates's boys are gonna take one look at him, say night-night, and pop a sweet cap between his eyes. He would've had a better chance going to the neighbor's house and sneaking through the second-story win…"

Max trailed off.

"_Max? Max, what happened?"_

As Max had been speaking, one of Yates's boys had answered the door, but unlike Max's prediction, the person did not get shot. Instead, the guard stepped out further onto the porch so he could point out the neighbor's house. The groundskeeper tipped his hat in acknowledgement towards the guard and bounded down off the porch. He got into his van and moved it in front of the neighbor's house.

"Oh…he had the wrong address," Max said.

"_You don't sound so certain, Max."_

"Well, he seems credible enough," Max said, as she watched the man go to the back and take out some gardening tools. "It's just…if I was going to break in to steal the Declaration, it would be through that house. It's got perfect access to the room where the document is. You would only have to deal with two, maybe three guards, and then you could slip right back out."

"_Why am I still hearing a 'but' somewhere in all of this?"_

"When I said it had perfect access to the room, I was thinking with transgenic abilities in mind. It's impossible for a non-transgenic to make that jump. He would have to use a rope, and a man scaling between the two houses is definitely something that all of Yates's men would be on the look-out for."

There was a silence as both Max and Logan thought about the implications of this.

"_Maybe he's transgenic."_

Max shook her head. "I left HQ with strict orders to keep all transgenics inside TC until the Declaration was waaay outta town. It wouldn't do to have White trying to pin this one on us. Besides, I didn't see a barcode."

"_So…what? You think maybe it's one of White's men?"_

Max shrugged. "Or any Familiar, really."

"_That's not good, Max. They'll try to set you guys up."_

"I _know _that Logan," Max snapped, keeping an eye on the house. There was a heavy silence on the other end of the line that kept weighing on Max's conscious. She sighed. "Look, Logan…I'm just a little tense right now…"

"_I understand," _Logan said after a beat. "_It _is _the Declaration of Independence we are talking about."_

Max paused. "Oh, yeah. There's that too."

"_That too? Max, the whole reason you're watching the place is to make sure that that document stays safe."_

"You don't have to tell me how to do my job. You asked for my help on this, and I accepted. Now trust me to do it."

It was Logan's turn to sigh on the other end of the line. "_I'm sorry, Max. I'm just worried. If it really is the Familiars behind this then…then maybe it would be best if you pulled out." _Logan sounded pained as he said it, but Max still felt the offer was sincere. "_You barely escaped the Familiars last time, and by no control on your part. For some reason they just let you go, and the longer I have to think on it, the more I believe Dr. Carr's theory about the whole thing just being a trial run." _Max tried not to fidget as Logan's words beat at her nerves. "_They're planning something for you, Max. Whether or not they're ready yet, we don't know, but dangling yourself out in front of them like that would be too tempting for them."_

Max scowled, staring at the house. "So, am I supposed to just sit here and watch as they frame us?"

"_No…you need to pull out. We need to re-evaluate the situation, get more manpower."_

Max was barely listening to him as she stared at the van. In ten seconds, the snipers would begin their break and rotation.

"Listen, Logan. I'm gonna let you go for a little bit." Max stood up from her spot on some neighbor's porch. They were gone on vacation and it gave her the perfect place to keep a lookout.

"_Max, no! There is no way I'm letting you do this. Not after our last gig. Alec would skin me alive if I put you in that much danger again-"_

Max laughed humorlessly. "You're not _letting _me? Logan, I don't know if you realized this, but I'm a big girl. I can make my own decisions. It's not up to you. And it sure as _hell _isn't up to Alec." Max put down the magazine she had been pretending to read on the little porch table. "I promise they won't get away with the document. No matter what you hear, know it'll be safe."

"_Max – I don't care about the document. It's not worth-"_

"I'll check back in with you in twenty minutes, tops," Max said, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Max walked down the steps and out into the street like she owned the place.

Max reached the back of the van. The guards in the house were the only people who had seen who was driving the van, and they probably didn't care about it anymore. The rest had already rotated out, and the new ones wouldn't suspect a thing if Max did her job right. Max discreetly took her lock pick out of her pocket, pretending it was a key and keeping the majority of the tool hidden on the snipers' side. It had been a long time since she had done anything remotely like breaking and entering, but Moody had once told her, as he kept one eye on his stopwatch and the other on a much younger Max trying to break into a safe, that picking a lock was something you didn't forget.

She reached up and, within the time it took to turn a key in its lock, had the door picked and open.

Max smiled to herself. "Like riding a bike," she said, quoting her teacher.

Max hopped into the van and shut the doors behind her. There were no windows in the back, much like Maxx's ride…Mandy…or something like that. Unlike Mindy (?), there wasn't a second set of doors separating the front from the back, which was fine by Max. Transgenics had impressive night vision, but they needed at least _some _light to go off of. Without the light filtering to the back from the front windows, Max would probably have been left stumbling around, considering she didn't want to carry _any _of her burglaring tools on the off-chance that she somehow got herself caught – which included her penlight for seeing when her night-vision failed her.

Max leafed around through the van, looking for something to give her some type of clue that this was a Familiar or an ordinary or, hell, maybe even a transgenic. But after three minutes of blurred searching, Max came up with no evidence, and yet not quite empty-handed. She learned that the guy was a professional.

She grabbed a pair of the smallest pair of overalls she could find, though she was still swimming in them to the point where she had trouble walking. That would be a problem if she had to run, or anything. Max adjusted the straps to the highest setting and still had to roll the pants up at the feet nearly six inches before she could walk properly. Max strapped the tool belt of gardening supplies around her waist and opened the door, grabbing a hat as she stepped down.

As she walked up to the neighbor's house, she used the cap to tuck her hair up and out of her way. She was glad she had asked Joshua to laser her tattoo off after her run-in with the Familiars. If there was the chance that she was going to be wandering the city with no memories, then the least she could do was keep her barcode off. It was just another bodily chore she had to maintain, she told herself, like shaving. When Max finished tucking her hair in, she put a little swagger into her walk as she approached the door, popping a bubble with her gum.

Max knocked on the door.

A grouchy, old man answered. "What?" he demanded.

"Yeah," Max said, putting on her best ditzy smile as she chewed her gum. "I'm so sorry about the inconvenience to you, but it's my first week on the job and my partner, who's supposed to be helping me learn the ropes, doesn't like me very much." Max flashed him a brilliant smile as she stepped into the house around him, walking down the hall. She called over her shoulder as she pointed her thumb. "He's in the back, right?"

The old man just stood there, gob smacked at her. "Well, I never," he mumbled to himself, though not very quietly at all, as he shut the door. "Young people have no boundaries nowadays."

Max grinned as she walked off down the hall. She looked back over her shoulder. The old man was sitting back in front of his TV, engrossed in the news. Max spun back around, forgoing the backyard completely. She watched the old man carefully, nearly holding her breath as she walked back up the hall towards the stairs. She didn't have to be so quiet, if the booming volume of the TV was anything to go by, but she wasn't going to take any chances.

Max made it to the stairs and climbed, avoiding the squeaky spots instinctively. When she could no longer see the living room, she put all of her focus on the upper-level of the house. It wouldn't do to have the burglar get the drop on her from making the rookie mistake of keeping to much attention on her back.

She listened intently as she climbed the stairs. Ever since the Familiars had injected her with something, Max had been noticing things different about herself. In particular, how much more acute her hearing was. There were other things as well, like now, when she trained, it was Joshua who fought with her, while Alec just showed her the techniques. It was very slight differences – a stronger punch there, a quicker swing there, a faster response then – but the hearing was definitely stronger.

It wasn't something Max had shared with anyone. Not the group who had picked her up at the Gillette base, not Logan, not even Dr. Carr who had asked her to list all of her symptoms. She especially hadn't shared it with TC. They already had trust issues with her for being an "09er."

No, the hearing was something she kept to herself. It was like the one time back at JamPony when they were holding everyone hostage and Max had told everyone that White's team was going to storm the place. She had let everyone assume that she had had some sort of psychic prediction or whatever the hell they wanted to think. The truth was, she had heard, _heard _White's team preparing to attack.

Except, rather than being able to hear that well only under the influence of heavy adrenaline, Max could hear that way all the time now. Cool, right?

Wrong. Max had almost felt like she had fit in when everyone agreed to hole up in TC. Now…well, now she was a freak among freaks.

Though it did make her an outcast and cause massive headaches (she was working on finding some earplugs), it definitely came in handy. Like right now.

She could hear the person moving around in the upstairs bedroom. Just where she thought he would be.

Max was a little shocked when she finished the stairs on silent feet, walked up to the cracked door, and peered through. The man was dusting stuff off of his overalls. In his hand, was a darkly-browned, rolled-up document.

He had already stolen it?

Max watched him for a moment, trying to discern any rope on his body, but since there were no alarms going off, she assumed that he had jumped into the other house, rather than climbing into it. So that still left the million dollar question: Transgenic or Familiar?

Max swallowed hard, and then braced herself.

She kicked the door open and leaned against the doorframe with her arms folded. The man nearly dropped his loot.

"Boy," Max said conversationally. "You're a long way from the garden."

The guy stared at her for a second or two. Max took the time to do the same. He was tall, as the overalls Max was forced to shorten had indicated. He had dark hair and startling blue eyes.

"I could say the same for you," the man said slowly.

Max grinned. "You're making a big mistake."

Max's nonchalant manner threw the burglar off for a second. He stiffened. "Not as big as the one you're making. Who sent you?"

"A friend," Max responded. "They wanted me to make sure that _that _little paper in _your _hand didn't get into the…_wrong _hands."

The man's lips twitched. "And I suppose your hands are the right ones then?"

Max shrugged, straightening a little. "It all depends, I guess."

The man copied her actions, looking ready to fight. "On what?"

"What flavor freak you are."

The man frowned, looking defensive. "What makes you think I'm a freak?"

Max nodded at the window behind him. "Only one way to get in and out of there alive, and no ordinary can do it. You must be Familiar."

The man looked like he was about to deny everything, but then he changed his mind. Instead, he settled down into a stance. "So what if I am? You're not getting this document. It's worth too much, and I need the money."

"It's not worth that much." Max shrugged her shoulders, matching the man step for step as they circled.

The burglar actually laughed. "Not worth that much? Do you have any idea what this is?"

"Yeah," Max said. "A fake."

The burglar froze.

"Albeit," Max continued, "It's a good fake. You could probably even fence it for a large G, easy. But it's not worth nearly as much as the real thing."

"No…" the burglar said, looking down at the paper in his hand. "You're lying."

"Actually, if you had known anything about old documents you would know that I'm not, but whatever."

"You're just trying to trick me. You want the document for yourself," the man said, right before he charged.

Max moved quickly to block, raising her arm just in time to catch his blow even though he had caught her off guard. The two limbs clashed together with a loud noise, and the fight was on.

At first, Max was fairly confident because she had the advantage. The burglar refused to let go of the Declaration. Max capitalized on that, even sometimes aiming for the parchment to keep him on his toes.

Max bent at the knees and sprang up, putting all of her weight into her fist as she flew towards him. He only had time to turn, not dodge the blow completely. It took him in the side. He limped his body out, allowing the force of the blow to spin him around. He managed to turn the spin into a nice roundhouse kick.

Max saw it coming and barely had time to bring her arms up into a cross to catch the foot with. There was force behind the kick though, because when his foot landed in the junction of her arms, Max felt the impact reverberate through her body so hard that her teeth chattered.

She let her body go backward with the blow, landing on her upper back and turning it into a backwards somersault. She came out of the tumble crouched on the balls of her feet, her fingertips brushing the ground. She quickly turned her shoulders, pushing her body into a low spin as she swept her foot out, trying to trip the man. He saw it coming easily and jumped over it.

What he didn't see coming was how Max raised as she made the spin, so that by the time she was facing him again, she was in the perfect stance to land another blow to his gut. The man grunted, but didn't let the blow slow him down. He swung one arm around for her head. Max caught it with one arm, but by doing so, missed the knee that caught her in the stomach, winding her. Max doubled in on herself, giving the burglar time to hook his foot behind her knee and push her backwards, riding her to the floor. The added weight of a fully-grown and well-muscled male landing on top of her made her see stars.

"Stay down," the man panted from his perch atop her chest, quickly pinning her elbows to the floor with his knees. "I win."

Surprisingly, those words gave Max the appropriate anger to bring her fight back. In a move of impressive flexibility and abdominal muscles, brought her legs up on either side of his head and yanked him backwards, throwing him off of her.

Copying Max's move, he turned the fall into a backwards tumble and landed in a crouch. He stared at Max warily as she got to her feet, wiped the blood off her mouth, and raised her fists.

Apparently, the man realized that he could either put it down and run the risk of her taking it, or keep fighting one-handed and definitely lose, thereby letting her take it. "Alright, alright," he said, surprising Max. He held his hands up. "Time-out."

Max stared at him blankly, lowering her wrists ever so slightly. "Time-out?"

"Yeah, you know what time-out is, don't ya? It means, I'm gonna put this document down, and you're gonna stay in the exact same spot until I get back in my stance."

"You have gotta be kidding me!" Max said, but as she did, he moved slowly towards the bed with his hands held up in a defensive position. "You _cannot _be serious."

The man bent sideways at the waist, his eyes never leaving Max, as he placed the Declaration on the bed. "Unfortunately, I am always serious and I never kid," he said, but there was a twinkle in his ice-blue eyes.

Max dropped her stance completely. That saying was very familiar…

"Did White send you?" Max asked, finally, deciding to just come out with it.

The burglar frowned, also deciding not to bring his fists back up just yet, but weary and ready. "White who?"

Max's brows furrowed. "_Fe'nos tol."_

The man shakes his head. "Okay, you are some kinda shade of crazy, chick-"

Max's mind is racing as she looked him over more carefully. His breathing seemed to be labored, almost as if he was in pain from her kick to his side. But…pain? That couldn't be right. It didn't make any sense. All of the transgenics had strict orders not to leave TC. Not only that, but there was no barcode on his neck.

Yet…Max studied him closer. Those eyes… "Zane?"

The man across from her stiffened, but then peered closer at her. "Wait, do I know you?"

Max grinned. "Don't you remember your baby sister?"

Zane frowned. "Jondy?" Max grinned, and he looked closer at her. "No, Max. Max? Is it really you?"

Max's smile split her face as she nodded.

Zane suddenly rushed forward and enveloped her in a hug. Max squeezed back as good as she got. Her eyes were misty. She let out a sigh of content, closed her eyes, and leaned her head on his shoulder. She had missed her family so much. All that was ever associated with them anymore was pain.

Ben was dead. Tinga was dead. Brin was probably dead. Jack and Eva had been dead a long time. Seth had died to keep Lydecker from her. Zack might as well have been dead. He wasn't here with her, by her own fault. She comforted her guilt by telling herself that he was enjoying the quiet life on some farm somewhere, but she knew deep down that he wouldn't have left his siblings to defend for their selves. He would've wanted to be leading them, helping them…protecting them, what was left of them, anyway. Seven out of a unit of fifteen. That was half. Half of their family was gone.

But Zane, ever the jokester Zane, had somehow managed to cross paths with her. Max couldn't have been happier.

"So, uh…it's really a fake?"

Max laughed, opening her eyes. Yeah, she had definitely missed Zane's humor.

"C'mon, you big goof. We need to scat," Max said, looking behind him to the window, where the clouds were turning the same threatening gray that they had been all morning. Max hated the rain. "I'll explain everything to you in the van if you can fit my motorcycle in the back."

"Deal." A mischievous, and very familiar grin spread across his face. "And, I didn't feel the need to mention it before because I thought you were a stranger and it would be rude, but really Max, _who_ are you taking fashion lessons from?"

Max grinned and punched him in the arm. "You, you idiot."

"Ohh," Zane said dramatically, "I thought those looked familiar. You have impeccable taste in clothing, I might add."

Max rolled her eyes as she walked out the room.

Zane, when he realized she was gone, called out affronted, "Hey, Maxie, wait up!"

DARKANGELDARKANGELDARKANGEL

Original Cindy held her breath as the van shook and stalled, but it held out and didn't die.

Sketchy, in the driver's seat, didn't seem to notice – which was actually a scary thought if you considered that he was the one driving. "God, don't you love it? I feel like we're trafficking something illegal and dangerous."

"They dangerous _and_ illegal, fool. For real, for sho. So just shut up and get your stupid white head in the game."

There was a short silence as OC continued to study Normal's messy scrawl and compare it to the map.

"I'm tellin' you, Cindy. I know where we're going. Relax."

"OC'll relax when she is submersed to shoulders in a nice hot bath. And how can you _even _read it?"

Sketchy shrugged. "Bossman left me in charge for a day. I had to sink or swim. So I learned how to read his writing. And I 'm telling you," he said, pulling the paper from her hand and flipping on the overhead light so he could read it again. "That says 26 Blaine Street, not Maine street."

The rain had slowed down a little while during the day, but it was gradually starting to get dark again. It looked like night when it was still mid-afternoon. The visibility was going down, too, as the rain picked up. It was making Original Cindy tense.

Cindy took the paper back from his hand, looking down at it. "It better, cuz this is the last chance. God, why does our Boss gotta be such a cheapskate. Can't he afford to buy new wipers?"

"Cindy," Sketchy said maturely. "It is not our place to judge. For he who hath not sinned, may _he _cast the first stone."

OC blinked. "I don't even own a car, you fool. What's this you accusin' me about ownin' a lousy-ass car?"

Sketchy, sighing, said, "Sometimes I wonder how it is that everybody thinks I'm the dumb one."

"Whatever, fool," OC said, giving him a sassy look. "All Cindy know's you keep sproutin' that poetry crap, she liable to murder yo white ass."

"It was not poetry crap, as you so eloquently put it. I happened to be quoting the big man," Sketchy said with an exaggerated finger pointing towards the skies.

"God?"

"Oh, no. The lesser large man. You know," Sketchy said, leaning closer to her as he looked around, before he whispered, "Jesus."

Cindy stared at him. "You trippin', boy."

"Actually, I'm not," Sketchy said proudly, before nodding at the paper in her hands. "And I'm telling you, it says 26 Blaine Street. Not 26 Maine Street, not 36 Maine Street, not 36 Blaine Street, and definitely not 26 or 36 _Blakely Street,_" he said, giving her a pointed look.

"Hey! OC cannot help that Normal's n's look like k's."

Sketchy rolled his eyes. "Whatever, all that I'm saying is if you had listened to me before, we wouldn't have spent all day going to the wrong—"

"Sketchy!" Cindy shouted with big eyes as she looked out the windshield. The wipers had just cleared to show the frightened face of a young female in the headlights.

Cussing, Sketchy swerved hard to the right, barely dodging the woman, yet taking out a pile of garbage instead. The alley was very narrow.

By the time Sketchy had straightened Normal's precious van back out, they were both breathing hard. Sketchy braked the car with shaky hands. OC made a conscious effort to quit gripping the hand bars. They shared a look, both happy and basking in the fact that they were alive.

Suddenly, OC was as far over as her seatbelt would allow, hitting Sketchy. "You coulda got us killed you fool. And that girl, did you ever think people could be out in this? It's Seattle—"

"Ow, Cindy, _ow!" _Sketchy whined, holding his hands up defensively. "Have you been taking lessons from Max? I know she's small, but that girl can pack a punch…kinda like you're doing, right now, repeatedly against my arm…in the same spot."

"—you are so inconsiderate. You gotta pay attention—"

Cindy was cut off by a knock on the window. They both froze. OC turned to the window behind her with one hand frozen around a fistful of Sketchy's shirt, and the other raised to strike another blow.

Outside the window was the woman Sketchy had almost run into. She was dirty and tattered, but her eyes, OC noticed as she rolled down her window, held a certain light in them.

OC gave her a questioning look.

The woman swallowed, looking all around her nervously. "Is this the way to the Promise Land?"

OC recognized the light in her eyes then. It was hope.

Sketchy grinned, brining one of his hands down from his face and reaching it across Cindy to offer to the woman. "It sure is. Sorry about almost hitting you there earlier. We were having some _directional_ problems," he said, shooting a quick look at OC. He turned back to the woman with a grin. "However, thanks to my superlative driving skills, we all made it out alive."

OC folded her arms and said sourly, "Yeah, they _superlative _alright."

The woman grinned, flattered by his antics. "I'm Kat."

"Theodore," Sketchy said suavely.

"Cindy gonna gag," OC mumbled to herself. She flinched when the woman, Kit, let out a sharp whistle.

Two young boys of about eight or nine suddenly appeared by the woman. OC told them to hop in and get out of the rain.

Sketchy, who had jumped and bumped his elbow when the boys came out of hiding, composed himself, turning around in his seat so he could see them better. "Well, hello young gents! And how are you on this fine, fine day?"

The two boys shared a look as they glanced out the window and up at the sky. As if to confirm their belief, lightning lit up the alley at that moment, followed by a booming crash of thunder. The young boys turned back to each other before looking warily back up at Sketchy.

Sketchy paid no attention to the children's incredulity. "Welcome aboard the JamPony Express. If you wouldn't mind, we at JamPony pride ourselves on being excellent package handlers, so if you could face forward, fasten your seatbelts, and keep all distal limbs inside the Express throughout the duration of your time with us then we get this show, as wise men once said, on the road."

Kat let out a small giggle. "I like you, Theodore. You're funny."

Sketchy sent her a wink before turning back around and starting the minivan. Or at least, trying to start the vehicle. All that really happened was a pitiful splutter and a wheezing stop.

Sketchy said calmly, "Not to be alarmed, folks. We seem to be having some difficulties with our engine. Expect slight delays."

Sketchy continued turning the key with much of the same result.

OC looked out her window to the side mirror. The rain was blurring her view, but she was positive that she had seen something dark floating in the air. She sat up, leaning closer to the mirror, searching for the telltale movement she had seen just a second ago.

Sketchy, who had noticed her out of his peripherals, turned while still trying to start the car and asked, "OC?"

OC shook her head. "Nah, don't worry about it. I just thought I saw something." She continued to scan the mirror, but didn't see anything. "Just get a move on. This place give OC the willies."

"I am trying, your Original Highness," Sketchy said with impatient patience, a feat not many could pull off. "But as you might be aware of, this heap of junk that Bossman so fondly calls a car is making that a little impossible at the moment." He continued to pump the gas and turn the key.

"You know," Kat said from the very back. "Brit and Brian here know a thing or two about mechanics."

Sketchy stopped to turn in his seat and look at the boys. "No kiddin'?"

"They trained us X8's to be more specialized in our areas, rather than teaching us all subjects," one recited.

"Our area of expertise is mechanical engineering. We took eight courses learning every make and model of vehicle before we could move on to the engineering class," the other finished.

"Well," Sketchy said, a little unsure of how to respond. It was obvious OC was in the same boat as they shared an unsure look. "Uh, then, would you mind peepin' under the hood?"

Brit and Brian looked at each other, before turning back to Sketchy. As they unbuckled their seatbelts, one said, "We will 'peep under your hood'."

"Sweet," Sketchy crooned. "Awesome," he continued, searching the dash. "Just uh . . . let me find the latch for the ho—"

"Under the steering column on the left side," one of the boys said before they both hopped out of the car and into the rain.

"Oh," Sketchy said, seeing it. "Right."

"Be careful," OC said.

"Always," the boys chimed.

Kat had climbed the back seat into the trunk and taken to looking out the rear window when OC had expressed her uneasiness. To a transgenic, there was no such thing as "the willies."

Sketchy leaned over OC suddenly and started going through the glove box.

"Ex-scuse you," OC snarked. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

"Lookin' for a flashlight," Sketchy said, rummaging around. "It's kinda dark out…aha! Got one." Sketchy gave the van a grin. "Ladies, if you'll excuse me, I am going to contribute my manly abilities," he said, waving the flashlight.

OC rolled her eyes. Kat laughed.

With one last wink, Sketchy was outside, letting gushes of rain inside until the door was closed. Silence descended upon the car.

Out of the corner of her eye, OC saw a little green light flash. She turned to her window, but couldn't see anything. She leaned a little closer. Her breath fogged up the glass. One of her hands reached up to wipe it away.

Lightning lit up the alley momentarily. OC jumped back from the window, cursing in a way that would make even Mole blush – if he could, that is.

"What," Kat said, turning at the commotion. "What is it?"

"Please, please tell OC you boos got your tats covered."

"Yeah, why?"

"Cause there's a hoverdrone right outside my window."

Kat started swearing as well.

"Maybe you should get your fine ass in your seat, girl," OC suggested staring at the tiny green light, the only visible part of the hoverdrone.

It started to propel forward and move towards the front of the car.

"Shit, shit, shitshitshit!" OC couldn't see past the hood. All she could see was the light coming out from either side. As the hoverdrone moved forward, it started to become more visible.

OC scrambled to the passenger side, for once thankful that Normal had such an ancient car, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to roll the window down.

"Hoverdrone," OC hissed, hoping like hell they heard.

There was a pause for a moment where the only thing anybody heard was the downpour of rain.

Then came Sketchy's raised voice. "Alright boys, now pay attention. Brit, if you would be so kind as to hold the light for me. I'm going to show you how to fix the…uh, fan thingy."

OC let out a breath of air and moved back over to her seat. The hoverdrone was completely visible now, bathed in the light from the flashlight as it hovered behind Sketchy and the boys.

"Those things whack," OC said eventually with a shiver.

Kat had moved up to the middle to get a better view. "Gotta love America. Land of freedom so long as you're following the G's rules."

Silently, the hoverdrone turned and continued on, backing out of the light until it disappeared.

OC watched with baited breath, but it didn't return.

"Okay," OC said through her window. "You're good."

She nearly jumped out of her seat when the driver's door opened and slammed shut. She turned to see Sketchy grinning at her.

"The wonder duo already fixed it. The carburetor cap needed cleaned."

"Distributor cap," one of the boys corrected.

"The lime build-up wasn't allowing the electrical spark cleanly through to ignite the engine," the other finished.

"Right," Sketchy said, throwing his thumb up in their direction. "What they said." He made a show about turning the key. The engine started up fine. Sketchy grinned real big and leaned closer to OC. "Cin, we have _got _to get a couple of these."

OC's lips twitched in amusement, but Sketchy couldn't see it in the dark. "Shut up and drive, fool."

DARKANGELDARKANGELDARKANGEL

"I can't believe you broke my ribs for a fake."

Max grinned as they walked up the front steps to Joshua's old house. "Quit being a baby. I didn't hit you _that _hard."

Zane held a hand up to his chest, making a wounded gesture. Max rolled her eyes and nearly walked right through the door before she paused. She wasn't like that with Logan anymore, the least she could do was start acting like it. Of course, she had never really made a point of knocking on Logan's door, until…Max remembered the one time she came here, the time she ended it with him, actually, and she had almost walked in on him and Asha. She shuddered at the thought and raised her fist to knock.

Zane, who was very perceptive, didn't say anything about her hesitation other than to casually ask, "So who's house is this again?"

"Logan Cale."

"Right. And who is he to you?"

"A friend," Max answered at the same time Logan opened the door. He heard what she said and stared at her.

Zane looked back and forth between the two with raised eyebrows. "Right."

"Funny you showed up. Cats always show up around dinner," Logan said, giving her a stare. He turned his head to Zane. "And who might this be?"

"Zane," Zane said, sticking his hand out to shake.

Logan accepted his hand, but then paused, turning to Max. "Wait—not _the _Zane."

Max's eyes misted over again, her smile splitting her face. Logan didn't need her to answer. He started shaking Zane's hand with much more vigor. "It's nice to finally meet you. Max has told me so much about you."

Zane grinned. "Oh I doubt that. At least, if she had been truthful with you, you probably wouldn't have been so happy to greet me."

Logan paused, looking unsure as he tried to pull his hand back. Zane wouldn't let him go. Logan shot his eyes over to Max. "He's not like brother Be-"

"No," Max said, quickly cutting him off. She did not want to bring up brother Ben.

"Then he's not walking with messed up memories like Za—"

"No," Max said, a little sharply. "He's fine. He's just talking about his mischievous hobbies."

Zane was frowning now, finally letting Logan's hand go. "Yeah, sorry. Didn't mean to freak you out. Well, actually, I did, but not that much. I take it you haven't had much luck with the rest of our unit."

Max stiffened.

Logan very carefully said, "You're a special bunch."

Zane grinned. "That we are. That we are."

Logan stepped back. "Where are my manners, please, come on in. Would you like anything to drink?"

"Water is fine," Zane said, taking a seat on the sofa and making himself comfortable.

"Max?" Logan asked. She shook her head no. Logan went into the kitchen.

"So," Zane said, conversationally. "You've been in contact with Zack and Ben, eh?"

"Zane, I-"

"Of course, that's no surprise. They both had a soft spot for you. Heck, we all did. You were the baby sister."

"Kavi was the youngest," Max said with a grin.

"Yeah, but he was annoying," Zane said, wrinkling his nose. "You were something to protect. You always had the seizures the worst of all of us. How are you handling that, by the way?"

"Fine," Max said, realizing she hadn't had a seizure since Manticore. Maybe they had fixed it.

"So who else have you seen?" Zane asked. "Zack wouldn't let us see each other…or at least, that's what he told me."

Max got a lump in her throat. "I don't feel like-"

"Don't feel like it?" Zane asked, his eyes getting suspiciously watery. "Max, you're the first person I've _seen _since Manticore. Twelve years, Max. You've gotta give me something."

Max knew that there was one person that he was particularly interested in, and it pained her to know that he was gone. She started with the easy. "Well, I saw Syl and Krit. They somehow managed to find each other, but that's no surprise," Max said, grinning. "I think they're together, together."

Zane snorted. "That's no surprise. Well, maybe a little, since we all betted Krit would end up batting for the other team. Is he still really…"

"No," Max said with a smile. "He grew out of it. Though I never thought that he was girly. Just cuz he liked to keep clean when you guys couldn't be muddy enough."

"Hey," Zane said fondly. "It was _weird."_

"I saw Jace," Max said, suddenly.

Zane stiffened. "Jace? But I thought she stayed behind."

"She did," Max said. "She was actually sent to capture me. She nearly did it too, but she switched sides at the last second when she found out that Manticore was going to take her baby away."

"Jace has a baby? Who was the father?"

"One of the Manticore techs, Victor."

Zane grimaced. "Ew, gross."

Max rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"So," Zane said, cautiously. "Zack actually went to you in person?"

"Yeah," Max said. "He wouldn't give me the number to contact him. He said I was a risk."

"What!" Zane cried. "What if you were in trouble?"

"Well," Max said, thinking. "He always seemed to show up when I was in a pinch. Zack never slacked when it came to keeping an eye on us."

Zane relaxed a little bit. "No, he was great at it. Eva and he made a great team."

"Yeah," Max said. "I don't think he's been the same since Eva died."

Zane nodded.

"Well," Max said. "Last I heard, Zack was living it up on some farm."

"You're kidding!"

"I do not kid."

"Hey, watch it. That's my line," Zane said with a small tap to her shoulder.

"Uh…I saw Tinga. She was great. She has a little boy, Case. He's extremely smart."

"Did all of the unit just mate like bunnies?"

"No, you big goof. Can you try to be mature?"

Zane sat up straight and traced a halo above his head.

Max rolled her eyes, but then frowned. "Renfro got a hold of Tinga…"

"Wait—who's Renfro?"

Max looked incredulous for a second before shaking her head. "Oh, you are waaay behind."

Zane scowled. "Like it's my fault. Zack used to call us every month, but I haven't heard from him in nearly half a year—and apparently because he's schmoozing it up on some farm."

"Uh…not exactly by choice," Max said, trying to think of where to start. "Wow, you really _are _behind. Okay…let me think. Brin was captured."

"No…"

"But we, Zack and I, tried to get her back. We did, actually. We made it as far as the state line before we realized that she was dying. She had progeria. She would've died if we didn't send her back to Manticore."

"You _let _Manticore take her back?"

"Yeah," Max said sadly. "But in the end, it wasn't our choice. Brin asked us to do it," Max blinked away her tears. "So we did."

Zane put his head in his hands.

"The next time I saw her," Max continued. "Manticore had gone all out on her. New programming," she said bitterly. "She was _happy _back home at Mommy Manticore. She wanted to spread the love, too. She thought we all should come 'home.' I gotta call from Tinga when she said Manticore was onto her and her boy. I went to help. Ran into Zack there. We got Tinga's family, we got Tinga, and we got out. But it was too late. Lydecker had already gotten to Case. He injected him with some nanotechnology that was slowly killing him. Tinga offered herself up if they would save her boy. Lydecker thought he was running that show. Turns out he wasn't the biggest baddy on the block anymore. There was a new player in town, Renfro."

"Lydecker was replaced?"

"More like he resigned. After he found Tinga dead and realized he had been betrayed, he turned against Manticore. That was when Zack, Krit, Syl, and I agreed to help him."

"Wait, you _helped _Lydecker?"

"Yeah, he may be a cold man, but he's a good leader. We almost succeeded, taking down Manticore. Blew up the DNA bank so they couldn't pop out any new version trannies. But it was all fubar. The X7's, they're…cold. Got shot, right through the heart."

Zane's head whipped up to face her. "No way…how are you alive?"

Max's eyes filled with tears this time that actually trailed down her face. "Zack," she choked out, "H-he—"

"Oh, Maxie…" Zane sighed. He moved next to her and enveloped her in a big hug.

"When I woke up, Renfro was standing over me talking about what a good heart he had, and how a part of him lived on in me…she made me listen to the heart monitor for days. I thought he was dead."

"But he's alive, Maxie. You know he is."

"I know, but…whatever Manticore did to him…it messed up his memories. He was a danger when he got out. H-he…I shocked him, and it made him forget who he was. Instead of risking Zack having another meltdown, Logan helped find a place for him where he could be safe. We told him he had amnesia, and he went to work on this farm."

Zane squeezed Max. "You know. I think that's actually what the stiff guy needed: a little manure on the shoes to loosen him up."

Max let out a watery chuckle.

"And…you said you saw Ben?" Zane said slowly. He was beginning to realize that Max had been through a lot. A lot more than he could have realized.

"Ben…he was…messed up. Logan found some people who were being mutilated with a barcode on the back of their necks, every one of them was Ben's number. He was killing people over and over again, like they made us do at Manticore with the prisoner. All in the name of the Blue Lady." Max said, pulling out the necklace she wore now. "This was Ben's."

Zane silently examined the necklace, not showing any emotion.

"I tried to stop him. He was trying to kill a priest. I told him that he needed help, but he wouldn't listen. I had to fight him. He ended up badly hurt. And that was about the time we heard the helicopter."

Zane winced. "Manticore."

"Ben didn't want to go back. He was scared they would put him with the Nomlies. H-he…" Max broke down, unable to keep her face up. "H-he asked me to…"

Zane squeezed her tighter, understanding now.

"I did," Max said. "I asked him to tell me about the Good Place, and then I snapped his neck. Saved myself."

They sit in silence, Max in remembrance, Zane in deep thought.

"I'm almost afraid to ask," Zane started.

"Then don't," Max interrupted.

Zane ignored her. "I mean, before I knew, I could make up all of these great stories about them."

She knew what he was going to ask. "Please, don't."

Zane turned to study her. "You know I have to, Maxie."

Unfortunately, she did. If she had the opportunity to ask about Jondy, she would never be able to pass it. The whole unit had been paired off: Zack and Eva, Max and Jondy, Ben and Tinga…Zane and Seth.

Max nodded in understanding, but still couldn't bring herself to speak.

Zane let her remain that way for five minutes before he finally prodded. "C'mon Max. I need to know."

Max let out a shaky sigh. "He was the first, you know. The first one I ran into since the escape. I was living in California at the time when I noticed him in the news. At first, I didn't know who it was. It wasn't a very good video, but I did know that he had a tattoo of a barcode on the back of his neck. So, without any regards to the life I had made for myself, I hit the road for Seattle. I had to see him."

Zane nodded, listening intently.

"I was messed up in some pretty bad turf wars back in LA, though. If I had been more careful, I don't know…maybe he'd be alive today. Somehow, my mess from home had made it to Seattle. One of the gang leaders was trying to make a deal with someone higher up. It was an art deal, and it was going down on the top of the Needle. I showed up to stop the deal and ran into Seth. At first, I thought he was with Lydecker because I had been cautious for so long. But Seth asked me to run away with him. He said that was why he was there, to work both ends and leave with the money _and _the painting, but things were more complicated than that. Lydecker was involved. We were going to split, but Seth…the gang leader shot Seth. I killed the gang leader and went to the ledge where I had seen him fall. He was holding on. I tried to pull him up, but we both heard the elevators go off." Zane's face was pained. "We knew it was Lydecker. Seth smiled up at me…right before he let go."

Zane squeezed his eyes shut.

"I'm so sorry…so sorry. I kill everyone…I'm poison," Max cried.

Zane was sad for his lost siblings, but he felt horrible for Max who had seemed to be holding all of this in the whole time. He grabbed her back up into a hug and just held her while he processed all the information he had learned. "You're not poison, Maxie," he said into her hair.

He held her until she calmed down. "Besides," he said. "Anyone who can get Zack to loosen up a bit is okay in my books."

Max nodded, wiping her eyes. She stood up, avoiding his eyes. "I'm gonna…go make a phone call. I'll be right back."

"Maxie," Zane said softly before she could leave the room. She turned back to him. "Are you sure you're alright?"

Max smiled even as she sniffed. "Always," she said.

Max stopped in the kitchen where Logan was leaning up against the counter. "Hey," she said.

"Hey," he said back.

"I'm gonna make a call. Can I borrow your phone?"

Logan stared at her for a few beats before he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He tossed it to her.

She caught it with a hiss. "Logan!"

"Wha—oh," Logan said, realizing that he would now have to bleach his phone or risk dying a horrible death. "Oops."

Max shook her head at him, but she was smiling. "I'm gonna take this in the office. Do you think you can?" Max gestured vaguely back in Zane's direction.

"Oh, yeah, sure. I'll man the fort," Logan said, moving into the living room.

Max watched him for a second before she called out. "Oh and Logan?" He turned back. "Whatever you do, don't let him near your computer."

When Max was sure Logan looked thoroughly alarmed, she headed off into the back office. She dialed a number.

It rang.

_Hey, Logan, buddy. Look I know you asked me to—_

"Alec, it's Max."

There was a long silence.

_Max? Are you _kidding _me? What are you doing with Logan's phone?_

Max frowned. "He let me borrow it. Look, there's something I need you to do—"

_Logan knows you're there? _

"Alec, what the hell is wrong with you? Of course he knows I'm here. I just got back from a run he had me on."

There was laughing on the other end of the line.

_You mean to tell me—_Alec chuckled. _That Logan has known where you are for a _while _now?_

Max frowned. "Uh, Alec? Are you okay? You seem a bit…tense."

_Tense? Tense! TENSE! I'm soaked to the bone and freezing. I think I have frostbite in places even _I _can't imagine. I think I was actually pissing ice cubes—_

"Please, save me from your twisted habits. What you do in your..._free time, _is up to you, but please, spare me the details of your sick fetishes." Max ignored the spluttering she heard from the other end of the line. "Now, I need you to find me an apartment for a transgenic. He—"

_No. _Alec's voice came over the phone softly. So softly in fact, that Max had to repeat it.

"…no?"

_No._

There was a silence. Max wasn't sure what was going on.

_No, no, no, no, NOOO! I am not doing _anything _for you or your stupid Eyes Only boyfriend. You both can just pucker up and kiss my frostbitten _ass cheeks. _Why would you even think I would do anything for you? You're so righteous it's nauseating. You adopted another transgenic charity case, ok, FINE! _You _house it. _You _feed it. _You _bathe it. _You _fill its litter box, but leave me out of it because I'm DONE!_

Max frowned. "What's got the stick up your butt?"

There was a sort of choking noise from the other line before Alec's voice boomed out, _YOU DO! You and your RollerBoy – BoyToy! You two think you're so noble and great, thinking of the whole world before yourselves, but you're too busy worried about the rest of the world to take the time to pick up the phone and call your good old buddy, Alec? Fine, _sayonara, chao, hasta la vista. _I'm sick of it. I'll be gone be moved out by the time you get back to your apartment, and then here's a quid pro quo for you: you don't call me, I won't call you._

Before Max could respond to that, there was the sound of a dial tone in her ear.


End file.
